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Inherent Vice
Inherent Vice
Nov 10, 2025 9:56 AM

Author:Thomas Pynchon

Inherent Vice

Read the cult classic behind the major new film starring Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon and Josh Brolin.

Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon - private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog.

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.

In this lively yarn, Thomas Pynchon, working in an unaccustomed genre, provides a classic illustration of the principle that if you can remember the sixties, you weren't there...or...if you were there, then you...or, wait, is it...

Reviews

Hilarious and thought-provoking

—— London Review of Books

Brilliant and brain boggling by turns

—— Daily Mail

Inherent Vice works brilliantly as both a neon-lit noir and as a psychedelic lament to the Sixties

—— Sunday Telegraph

The greatest, wildest author of his generation

—— Guardian

The intellectual game-play is characteristically dazzling...colourful and pleasurable

—— Financial Times

You don't have to have been there; if you're willing, he'll take you there

—— Michael Carlson , Spectator

The pioneering work in a genre you'd have to call psychedelic Noir ...Who writes sentences as beautiful as Pynchon?

—— Sam Leith , Daily Mail

Pynchon leaves the rest of the American literary establishment at the starting gate...the range over which he moves is extraordinary, not simply in terms of ideas explored but also in the range of emotions he takes you through

—— Time Out

The most important and mysterious writer of his generation

—— Time

A warm and joyous read. There is softness about this book, but also a tinge of melancholy

—— Billy O’Callaghan , Irish Examiner

[Vann is] such a fine craftsman.

—— Observer

Strange and sad and desperately readable

—— We Love This Book

A kind of modern fairy tale, one laced with treachery and trials and the greatest demon of all to battle, the past ... Vann’s novels are striking, uncompromising portraits of American life; here is another exceptional example.

—— Booklist starred review

By pulling no punches in this explicit exploration of family, forgiveness, duty, acceptance, parent-child relationships, and what constitutes abuse, Vann has outdone himself.

—— Kirkus starred review

A 12-year-old’s fragile world, mesmerizing innocence, and emerging adolescence are the heart of this alluring novel … Her fresh voice rings true … Since electrifying the literary world five years ago with his debut novel, Legend of a Suicide, Vann has racked up an astonishing number of international awards. This lovely, wrenching novel should add to that list.

—— Library Journal, starred review

Genuinely thought-provoking.

—— CultureFly

Vann’s deceptively simple style conceals the story’s raw emotional power.

—— Mail on Sunday
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