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Thomas Pynchon

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Thomas Pynchon


Born
in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, The United States
May 08, 1937

Website

Genre
Literary Fiction, Classics

Influences
Richard Fariña, T.S. Eliot, Vladimir Nabokov, Kafka, Henry Miller, Jac ...more


Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and nonfiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, science, and mathematics. For Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon won the 1973 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.

Hailing from Long Island, Pynchon served two years in the United States Navy and earned an English degree from Cornell University. After publishing several short stories in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he began composing the novels for which he is best known: V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), and Gravity's Rainbow (1973). Rumors of a historical novel about Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon had circulated as early as ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 4.16 · 1,747,525 ratings · 73,371 reviews · 48 distinct works • Similar authors
The Crying of Lot 49
3.69 avg rating — 97,068 ratings — published 1966 — 3 editions
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Gravity’s Rainbow
4.01 avg rating — 48,084 ratings — published 1973 — 139 editions
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Inherent Vice
3.80 avg rating — 38,250 ratings — published 2009 — 76 editions
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V.
3.97 avg rating — 25,291 ratings — published 1963 — 6 editions
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Vineland
3.76 avg rating — 17,011 ratings — published 1990 — 84 editions
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Mason & Dixon
4.14 avg rating — 12,544 ratings — published 1997 — 2 editions
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Bleeding Edge
3.62 avg rating — 14,152 ratings — published 2013 — 61 editions
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Against the Day
4.05 avg rating — 10,213 ratings — published 2006 — 52 editions
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Slow Learner
3.53 avg rating — 5,412 ratings — published 1984 — 40 editions
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Shadow Ticket
3.62 avg rating — 3,889 ratings — published 2025 — 11 editions
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More books by Thomas Pynchon…

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Quotes by Thomas Pynchon  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Every weirdo in the world is on my wavelength.”
― Thomas Pynchon
2484 likes
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“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
tags: paranoia, proverbs, wit
1752 likes
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“Life's single lesson: that there is more accident to it than a man can ever admit to in a lifetime and stay sane.”
― Thomas Pynchon, V.
1198 likes
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Polls

2015 Fourth Quarter Long Read

1978, The Stand by Stephen King, 1153 pages
 
  27 votes, 18.0%

 
  25 votes, 16.7%

1853, Bleak House by Charles Dickens, 1017 pages
 
  16 votes, 10.7%

 
  15 votes, 10.0%

1868, The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 667 pages
 
  13 votes, 8.7%

 
  11 votes, 7.3%

1924, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, 706 pages
 
  10 votes, 6.7%

 
  9 votes, 6.0%

1982, North and South by John Jakes, 812 pages
 
  7 votes, 4.7%

 
  6 votes, 4.0%

1973, Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, 776 pages
 
  4 votes, 2.7%

1920, Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, 1168 pages
 
  3 votes, 2.0%

 
  3 votes, 2.0%

 
  1 vote, 0.7%

 
  0 votes, 0.0%

1876, Daniel Deronda by George Eliot, 796 pages
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

150 total votes
More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
Hipinion: so, a bookclub? 8 145 May 03, 2007 11:00AM  
UC Berkeley iSchool: What's on the holiday stack? 11 133 Nov 14, 2008 02:19PM  
The Next Best Boo...: We have our JUNE group read WINNERS!! 216 802 Jun 02, 2009 02:58PM  
The Next Best Boo...: New Group--Gravity's Rainbow discussion 2 201 Jun 29, 2009 04:22PM  
The Next Best Boo...: Opening Paragraphs 306 1265 Feb 15, 2010 06:12PM  
SciFi and Fantasy...: What are you reading in March 2010? 86 270 Apr 16, 2010 11:53AM  
Book Buying Addic...: Titles A-Z Game 684 818 Apr 21, 2010 07:20PM  
The Life of a Boo...: Elaine's TBR list 39 126 Jun 06, 2010 04:49AM  
The Seasonal Read...: 10.1 - Stormy Weather 18 197 Jul 24, 2010 07:37AM  


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