The Crying of Lot 49
Language: English
Administration of estates California Classics Criticism Essays Fiction General General & Literary Fiction Literary Literary Collections Literature: Classics Married women Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945) Reading Group Guide
Publisher: Penguin Press
Published: Jan 1, 1966
Description:
Thomas Pynchon's classic post-modern satire, which tells the wonderfully unusual story of Oedipa Maas, first published in 1965.
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.
Review
"A puzzle, an intrigue, a literary and historical tour de force with a strongly European flavor." -- -- * San Francisco Examiner *
"The comedy crackles, the puns pop the satire explodes." -- -- New York Times
"The work of a virtuoso with prose.intricate symbolic order [is] akin to that of Joyce's Ulysses." -- -- Chicago Tribune**
"A puzzle, an intrigue, a literary and historical tour de force with a strongly European flavor." -- * San Francisco Examiner *
"The comedy crackles, the puns pop the satire explodes." -- New York Times
"The work of a virtuoso with prose.intricate symbolic order [is] akin to that of Joyce's Ulysses." --Chicago Tribune
From the Back Cover
The Crying of Lot 49 is 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 coexecutor of his estate, California housewife Oedipa Maas 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.