![]() ![]() I was hoping to love Inherent Vice, another Pynchonesque psychedelic romp through California in the Sixties, but it's basically a hippie noir with really funky characters. It's also not as wild, dense, and layered as The Crying of Lot 49, which I loved. Many of his fans describe this as "Pynchon Lite." It's certainly nowhere near the length of his weightier classics like V. Despite that, 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. 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. ![]() ![]() 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. ![]() It's been awhile since Doc has seen his ex-girlfriend. 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. Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon. ![]()
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