Has Thomas Pynchon still got it?

Published October 17, 2025 3:56am ET



For all the puns, the globetrotting, the exhuming of forgotten American sins and the pomo blenderization of science, poetry, journalism and junk culture, Thomas Pynchon’s now 60-plus-year oeuvre is largely obsessed with one two-headed monster of a question: Where does violence come from, and what does it look like when it encroaches on our allegedly otherwise peaceful world?

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