Understanding Thomas Pynchon

This volume provides instruction in how to read Thomas Pynchon--how to identify his material, themes, use of language, point of view, structure, symbolism, and responses to experience. Newman examines Pynchon's short fiction and presents close readings of his three novels. He reviews recent criticism, tracks the complex, fluid states of Pynchon's fiction, and etablishes the place of individual works in the canon. He also discusses the methods of representation--mixed modes, wordplay, parody, and burlesque--that Pynchon deploys to encapsulate meanings. Newman argues that Pynchon's novels undermine their own fictionality in order to encode meanings that implicate the reader in social and political issues. ISBN 0-87249-485-3: $15.95.