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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 · 1,640,057 ratings · 68,142 reviews · 47 distinct works • Similar authors
The Crying of Lot 49
3.69 avg rating — 95,300 ratings — published 1966 — 7 editions
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Gravity’s Rainbow
4.01 avg rating — 47,496 ratings — published 1973 — 6 editions
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Inherent Vice
3.79 avg rating — 37,575 ratings — published 2009 — 4 editions
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V.
3.97 avg rating — 25,039 ratings — published 1963 — 64 editions
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Vineland
3.76 avg rating — 15,631 ratings — published 1990 — 83 editions
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Mason & Dixon
4.13 avg rating — 12,347 ratings — published 1997 — 5 editions
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Bleeding Edge
3.62 avg rating — 13,964 ratings — published 2013 — 3 editions
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Against the Day
4.05 avg rating — 10,120 ratings — published 2006 — 52 editions
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Slow Learner
3.53 avg rating — 5,347 ratings — published 1984 — 8 editions
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Shadow Ticket
3.91 avg rating — 674 ratings — published 2025 — 10 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
2486 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
1748 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.
1195 likes
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Polls

4th Quarter 2023 (October - December) Long Reads Poll

 
  41 votes, 23.6%

Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens, 1841, 835 pages
 
  31 votes, 17.8%

Man and Wife by Wilkie Collins, 1870, 689 pages
 
  25 votes, 14.4%

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, 1996, 1079 pages
 
  24 votes, 13.8%

V. by Thomas Pynchon, 1963, 640 pages
 
  19 votes, 10.9%


Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo, 1978, 1424 pages
 
  14 votes, 8.0%

 
  13 votes, 7.5%

Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks, 1998, 758 pages
 
  7 votes, 4.0%

174 total votes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Hipinion: so, a bookclub? 8 143 May 03, 2007 11:00AM  
UC Berkeley iSchool: What's on the holiday stack? 11 130 Nov 14, 2008 02:19PM  
The Next Best Boo...: We have our JUNE group read WINNERS!! 216 801 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 1264 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 684 816 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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