Inherent Vice

Thomas Pynchon's latest resembles the stoner murder-mystery The Big Lebowski , but with more Phillip Marlowe than Spicolli(Fast Times at Ridgemont High), and of course a multitude of plot digressions which Pynchon is famous for. What will first strike any reader of Pynchon's is the abbreviated length of the novel, which reads like a short-story in comparison to the 700 to 800 pages mammoths he normally produces. This doesn't mean he fails to include an infinite number of plot lines, meticulous period detail, or engaging discussions of popular culture. All of this combines to evoke surfers, hallucinogens, early versions of the Internet, and discussions of Charlie the Tuna. However, the main plot of Inherent Vice revolves around Doc Sportello, a private eye with a seemingly insatiable desire for marijuana. This presents a perspective more attuned to late night diners and surf rock than crime scenes. However, Sportello resides in Gordita Beach and the time is 1970, when the Manson family was just coming to trial and Nixon was president. Sportello's ex-girlfriend has come to him to locate a real estate developer she has become infatuated with. From there the plot takes on one digression after another, filled with paranoid hippies, a Dirty Harry cop who vehemently hates hippies, and a saxophone player seemingly born again to infiltrate counter-culture groups. What enlivens the material is Pynchon's ability to develop the paranoia of the time, the seemingly vacuous ruminations made by enlightened stoners, and of course, Doc Sportello himself. Pynchon does reveal more of his character as the plot progresses, and you do get to see his vulnerability, his aptitude and intelligence which others fail to see, and the simple pleasures which distract him from a world on the verge of breaking down as the idealism of the 60's fades away. This may not garner the reception of what many consider Pynchon's masterpiece, Gravity's Rainbow, but it is a humorous and oddly endearing novel that truly evokes the end of an era; albeit in the form of a shaggy dog story.