posted by Arts Intern Matthew Vollono
Just as I finished the brilliant (but exhausting) Against the Day, Penguin Group has announced they will be releasing Thomas Pynchon’s next novel Inherent Vice, in early August 2009. Judging by its relatively trim (by Pynchon standards) 384 page count, and the description on Penguin’s website, this sounds like it could be a sort of sequel to The Crying of Lot 49, and one that might even continue the story of everyone’s favorite estate executor, Oedipa Maas. Cross your fingers.
From Penguin Group:
It’s been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. Easy for her to say. It’s the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that “love” is another of those words going around at the moment, like “trip” or “groovy,” except that this one usually leads to trouble. Despite which he soon finds himself drawn into a bizarre tangle of motives and passions whose cast of characters includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, a tenor sax player working undercover, an ex-con with a swastika tattoo and a fondness for Ethel Merman, and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dentists.
Yes!! And here’s the kind of groovy, kind of lame jacket cover:
That cover’s fucking awesome. Fix your byline.