The Secret Integration

by Thomas Pynchon, Jake Tilson (Illustrator)

The Secret Integration was first published in The Saturday Evening Post, December 19, 1964.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, The United States Of America, Novels

47 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

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 the 1980s; the novel, Mason & Dixon, was published in 1997 to critical acclaim. His 2009 novel Inherent Vice was adapted into a feature film by Paul Thomas Anderson in 2014. Pynchon is notoriously reclusive from the media; few photographs of him have been published, and rumors about his location and identity have circulated since the 1960s. Pynchon's most recent novel, Bleeding Edge, was published on September 17, 2013.

Reviews

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps my favorite of Pynchon's short stories, "The Secret Integration" is a nuanced exploration of issues of race and racism in America; and while stylistically it most resembles V., this story provides the reader with a much clearer glimpse of Pynchon's concern for the subaltern, for the oppressed, than we are often allowed to see in some of his novels, partly because in the novels there is simply so much to absorb that often this element is ignored.

Well worth a read, this story. If you choose to read only one of Pynchon's short stories, let it be this one.

[Chad Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is collected in Slow Learner.

[Gu Kun · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I can say is WOW!!!

[nw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heart Thomas Pynchon. The title short story is simply a masterpiece. I truly didn't see the ending coming.

[Renton Walter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

[Oriana]

Uh, what? Does this exist? What is it? Why have I never heard of it before??


But more importantly, there will be a new Pynchon book next summer!!! Shit that is so cool I wonder what it will be called I am so excited!

[Colton Constantino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever, whimsical way to depict bigotry in 1960’s America.

Pynchon utilizes children’s imagination to show that humans are not born with hate in their hearts. Rather we’re taught to hate people or things. Great short read.

[Aiden Heavilin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably my favorite short story.

[David Karlsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Det hör till ovanligheterna för mig att börja läsa en bok utan att veta något alls om den. Oftast har jag i alla fall ett hum om vad den ska handla om, även om jag brukar försöka undvika baksidestexter och recensioner för det mesta. Pynchon känner jag såklart till som författare även om jag aldrig läst något av honom (jag påbörjade ”Gravitationens regnbåge” en gång för länge sedan men tog mig aldrig igenom den).

När Bakhåll nu gett ut en av hans noveller som en liten tunn bok är det genom ett kontrakt som inte tillåter dem att berätta något alls om den: inget om handlingen och inget om författaren själv mer än titlarna på hans övriga böcker. Att omslaget också är rätt intetsägande gör att jag är helt nollställd när jag slår upp första sidan, och det är en förvånansvärt härlig känsla att sugas in i något och inte veta vart det tar vägen.

Så pass uppfriskande faktiskt att jag inte heller tänker berätta något om boken, mer än att jag verkligen uppskattade den. Det är en välkomponerad novell som lämnar mycket till läsaren att fylla i och fundera på, och även om det delvis märks att den har 60 år på nacken tycker jag att den har mycket att säga även idag. Kanske hade Pynchon kunnat våga stryka en mening alldeles i slutet och lite mer på sina läsare, men annars är det en riktigt välskriven och läsvärd novell.

[Callie M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminded me of J.D. Salinger's short stories, but, a bit convoluted and opaque. Pynchon is doing something interesting in how he writes, but it's hiding a content that I get the sense just isn't really all that. Style over substance.

[Chibyke shade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps my favorite of Pynchon's short stories, "The Secret Integration" is a nuanced exploration of issues of race and racism in America; and while stylistically it most resembles V

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Capricious.

[Sawyer Hill]

A gift to the world.

[Blanca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for uni. I hated it but the ending is wow.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top five short stories ever written.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite Pynchon short story

[Mole Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing ever seemed to change; no "objectives" were taken that didn't create a need to start thinking about new ones, so that soon the old ones were forgotten and let slip by default back into the hands of grownups or into a public no man's land again, and you would be back where you'd started.
Possibly the best story in Slow Learner, though I think Under the Rose is just as good. It serves as a perfect short glimpse into the masterpieces Pynchon would go on to produce.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Singleton short story. Inte.resting plot

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not great but it's short

[wally · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read this one in slow learner....as i take the word of whatever, whoever, that says the story is included there...i no longer have my copy of slow learner, alas....

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

если бы не географические названия, ставила бы на то, что все дело происходит в Гринтауне

[NerzhinGleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Рассказы Пинчона читаются по непонятной причине легко. Чего не скажешь о романах.

[Old Greg]

the best of thomas pynchon's short stories, and one of my favorite short stories

[Fedor Sumkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usual Pynchon book, a bit complex, but still awesome reading.

[Oryx · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.4