Review of Inherent Vice
I read my first two Pynchon books this year. The Crying of Lot 49 knocked my socks off. Inherent Vice grabbed those socks and ate them. I am sockless and I am converted: Pynchon is my favorite fiction author.
The premise: In 1970, Doc Sportello is a chronically stoned private investigator living in Gordita Beach near Los Angeles. Doc's ex, Shasta, tips him off to a plot to seize the fortune of her boyfriend, Wolfmann, a major real estate developer. Soon after, Shasta and Wolfmann disappear. As Doc investigates, he keeps encountering the Golden Fang, a mysterious group which has its tentacles in everything: real estate, a dentists' guild, a smuggling ring, and more. Doc is never exactly targeted by the Golden Fang, but everywhere he looks, he finds another tentacle, and he can never be sure who's in league with it.