num_pages: 369
description: Part noir part psychedelic romp all Thomas Pynchon - private eye Doc Sportello comes occasionally out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fogIt's been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend Shasta Fay. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. Easy for her to say. It's the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A. and Doc knows that love is another of those words going around at the moment like trip or groovy except that this one usually leads to trouble. Despite which he soon finds himself drawn into a bizarre tangle of motives and passions whose cast of characters includes surfers hustlers dopers and rockers a murderous loan shark a tenor sax player working undercover an ex-con with a swastika tattoo and a fondness for Ethel Merman and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dodgy dentists.In this lively yarn Thomas Pynchon working in an unaccustomed genre provides a classic illustration of the principle that if you can remember the sixties you weren't there . . . or . . . if you were there then you . . . or wait is it . . .hang on. . .what
language: English
title: Inherent Vice
publisher: Penguin Press