A short comic novel set in California in the 1960s. Oedipa Maas, a housewife, is named executor of the estate of a wealthy former lover. While sorting it out, she stumbles on hints of a secret underground mail system and a centuries-old feud. As clues multiply, she cannot tell whether she is uncovering a real conspiracy, or imagining one, or being tricked. The book is quick, playful and puzzling, and it is often the first Pynchon novel people read. It explores paranoia, communication and the way meaning is built from scraps.
Quotes
"Run away with me," said Roseman when the coffee came. "Where?" she asked. That shut him up.
"You one of those right wing nut outfits?" inquired the diplomatic Metzger. Fallopian twinkled. "They accuse us of being paranoids." "They?" inquired Metzger, twinkling also. "Us?" asked Oedipa.
I was dreaming … about my grandfather. A very old man, at least as old as I am now, 91. I thought, when I was a boy, that he had been 91 all his life. Now I feel as if I have been 91 all my life.
Teamwork," Koteks snarled, "is one word for it, yeah. What it really is is a way to avoid responsibility. It's a symptom of the gutlessness of the whole society.