Book summary

A complex novel of ideas in which Pynchon examines conflicting views on the meaning of History through his two main characters, Benny Profane and Herbert Stencil. For Profane (a self-proclaimed schlemiel), history is merely a vast assemblage of tangled accidents. Herbert Stencil believes in a concept of history as a complex conspiratorial game. The two team up to find the mysterious "V"--a woman briefly, enigmatically, referred to in a journal kept by Stencil's father during World War II. Stencil knows she's behind an undefined conspiracy.

Media reviews

"The identity of V., what her many guises are meant to suggest, will cause much speculation. What will be remembered, whether or not V. remains elusive, is Pynchon's remarkable ability--which includes a vigorous and imaginative style, a robust humor, a tremendous reservoir of information (one suspects that he could churn out a passable almanac in a fortnight's time) and, above all, a sense of how to use and balance these talents. True, in a plan as complicated and varied as a Hieronymous Bosch triptych, sections turn up which are dull--the author backing and filling, shuffling the pieces of his enormous puzzle to no effect--but these stretches are far fewer than one might expect."