Description:
Thomas Pynchon's classic satire of modern America, about Oedipa Maas, a woman who finds herself enmeshed in what would appear to be an international conspiracy.
When her ex-lover, wealthy real-estate tycoon Pierce Inverarity dies and designates her the co-executor of his estate, California housewife Oedipa Mass is thrust into a paranoid mystery of metaphors, symbols, and the United States Postal Service. Traveling across Southern California, she meets some extremely interesting characters, and attains a not-inconsiderable amount of self-knowledge.
This Harper Perennial Deluxe Modern Classic edition features beautiful artwork on uncoated stock, French flaps, and rough front.
Brief description:
Thomas Pynchon is the author of V., The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow, Slow Learner (a collection of short stories), Vineland, Mason & Dixon, Against the Day, Inherent Vice, Bleeding Edge, and Shadow Ticket. He received the National Book Award for Gravity's Rainbow in 1974.
Review Quotes:
"[A] spectacular tale. . . . The work of a virtuoso with prose. . . . His intricate symbolic order is akin to that of Joyce's Ulysses." - Chicago Tribune
"The comedy crackles, the puns pop, the satire explodes." - New York Times
"A puzzle, an intrigue, a literary and historical tour de force." - San Francisco Examiner
"Pynchon is again whispering something in our ear about the meaning of coincidence, the possibility of recurrence in history, and the circularity of time. . . . . The Crying of Lot 49 is one of those mystery novels that can't be solved." - New York Review of Books
"Remarkable. . . . The Crying of Lot 49 resembles metaphysical poetry in the range of its allusions and the curiosity of its creator. Consequently, the book is always surprising." - Washington Post