V (Paperback)
| Author: Thomas Pynchon |
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Product Details:
| *Author: Pynchon, Thomas *Publication Date: 1999/04/01 *Number of Pages: 533 *Binding Type: Paperback *Language: English *Depth: 1.50 *Width: 5.50 *Height: 8.25 |
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From the Publisher:
The wild, macabre tale of the twentieth century and of two men -- one looking for something he has lost, the other with nothing much to lose -- and "V.," the unknown woman of the title. |
Annotation:
A complex novel of ideas in which Pynchon examines conflicting views on the meaning of History through his two main characters, Benny Profane and Herbert Stencil. For Profane (a self-proclaimed schlemiel), history is merely a vast assemblage of tangled accidents. Herbert Stencil believes in a concept of history as a complex conspiratorial game. The two team up to find the mysterious "V"--a woman briefly, enigmatically, referred to in a journal kept by Stencil's father during World War II. Stencil knows she's behind an undefined conspiracy.
A complex novel of ideas in which Pynchon examines conflicting views on the meaning of History through his two main characters, Benny Profane and Herbert Stencil. For Profane (a self-proclaimed schlemiel), history is merely a vast assemblage of tangled accidents. Herbert Stencil believes in a concept of history as a complex conspiratorial game. The two team up to find the mysterious "V"--a woman briefly, enigmatically, referred to in a journal kept by Stencil's father during World War II. Stencil knows she's behind an undefined conspiracy.
Author Bio
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr, was born and raised in a Roman Catholic family on Long Island, one of three children. His father was an industrial surveyor. He graduated from high school in 1953 at the age of 16, second in his class, and went to Cornell University on scholarship as an engineering physics major. After two years, he left Cornell to serve in the Navy, returning to Cornell in the fall of 1957, when he changed his major to English. His first novel, V, was published in 1963, and won the William Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel of the year. (When questioned in an interview about the novel's alleged difficulty, Pynchon asked, "Why shouldn't things be difficult?") Pynchon is considered one of the giants of American fiction, and is famous for, among other things, being reclusive and unwilling to give interviews.
Praise
New York Times Book Review
"The identity of V., what her many guises are meant to suggest, will cause much speculation. What will be remembered, whether or not V. remains elusive, is Pynchon's remarkable ability--which includes a vigorous and imaginative style, a robust humor, a tremendous reservoir of information (one suspects that he could churn out a passable almanac in a fortnight's time) and, above all, a sense of how to use and balance these talents. True, in a plan as complicated and varied as a Hieronymous Bosch triptych, sections turn up which are dull--the author backing and filling, shuffling the pieces of his enormous puzzle to no effect--but these stretches are far fewer than one might expect." - George Plimpton 4/21/1963
"The identity of V., what her many guises are meant to suggest, will cause much speculation. What will be remembered, whether or not V. remains elusive, is Pynchon's remarkable ability--which includes a vigorous and imaginative style, a robust humor, a tremendous reservoir of information (one suspects that he could churn out a passable almanac in a fortnight's time) and, above all, a sense of how to use and balance these talents. True, in a plan as complicated and varied as a Hieronymous Bosch triptych, sections turn up which are dull--the author backing and filling, shuffling the pieces of his enormous puzzle to no effect--but these stretches are far fewer than one might expect." - George Plimpton 4/21/1963
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