Thomas Pynchon w bardzo niedługim czasie pod wydaniu Against the Day publikuje swoje najnowsze dzieło pod tytułem Inherent Vice. Według ostatnich doniesień książka ma doczekać się swojej ekranizacji. Prawa do Inherent Vice zostały sprzedane jeszcze przed oficjalną premierą w Stanach.

Poniżej opis książki zamieszczony zamieszczony w katalogu internetowym wydawnictwa Penguin Press:

It’s been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend. 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 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 . . .

Fragment książki

She came along the alley and up the back steps the way she always used to. Doc hadn’t seen her for over a year. Nobody had. Back then it was always sandals, bottom half of a flower-print bikini, faded Country Joe and the Fish T-shirt. Tonight she was all in flatland
gear, hair a lot shorter than he remembered, looking just like she swore she’d never look.
“That you, Shasta? The packaging fooled me there for a minute.”
“Need your help, Doc.”
They stood in the streetlight through the kitchen window there’d never been much point putting curtains over and listened to the thumping of the surf from down the hill. Some nights, when the wind was right, you could hear the surf all over town.
Nobody was saying much. What was this? “So! You know I have an office now? Just like a day job and everything?”
“I looked in the phone book, almost went over there. But then I thought, better for everybody if this looks like a secret rendezvous.”
OK, nothing romantic tonight. Bummer. But it might be a paying gig. “Somebody’s keeping a close eye?”
“Just spent an hour on surface streets trying to make it look good.”
“How about a beer?” He went to the fridge, pulled two cans out of the case he kept inside, handed one to Shasta.
“There’s this guy,” she was saying.
There would be. No point getting emotional. And if he had a nickel for every time he’d heard a client start off this way, he would be over in Hawaii now, loaded day and night, digging the waves at Waimea, or better yet hiring somebody to dig them for him. . . . “Gentleman of the straight-world persuasion,” he beamed.
“OK, Doc. He’s married.”
“Some . . . money situation.”
She shook back hair that wasn’t there and raised her eyebrows so what.
Groovy with Doc. “And the wife— she knows about you?”
Shasta nodded. “But she’s seeing somebody too. Only it isn’t just the usual number—they’re working together on some creepy little scheme.”
“To make off with hubby’s fortune, yea, I think I heard of that happenin’ once or twice around L.A. And . . . you want me to do what exactly?” He found the paper bag he’d brought his supper home in and got busy pretending to scribble notes on it, because straight-chick uniform, makeup supposed to look like no makeup or whatever, here came that old well-known hard-on Shasta was always good for sooner or latter. Does it ever end, he wondered. Of course it does. It did.

Ścieżka dźwiękowa do książki:

* “Bamboo” by Johnny and the Hurricanes
* “Bang Bang” by The Bonzo Dog Band
* Bootleg Tape by Elephant’s Memory
* “Can’t Buy Me Love” by The Beatles
* “Desafinado” by Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto, with Charlie Byrd
* Elusive Butterfly by Bob Lind
* “Fly Me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra
* “Full Moon in Pisces” performed by Lark
* “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys
* The Greatest Hits of Tommy James and The Shondells
* “Happy Trails to You” by Roy Rogers
* “Help Me, Rhonda” by The Beach Boys
* “Here Come the Hodads” by The Marketts
* “The Ice Caps” by Tiny Tim
* “Interstellar Overdrive” by Pink Floyd
* “It Never Entered My Mind” by Andrea Marcovicci
* “Just the Lasagna (Semi-Bossa Nova)” by Carmine & the Cal-Zones
* “Long Trip Out” by Spotted Dick
* “Motion by the Ocean” by The Boards
* “People Are Strange (When You’re a Stranger)” by The Doors
* “Pipeline” by The Chantays
* “Quentin’s Theme” (Theme Song from “Dark Shadows”) performed by Charles Randolph Grean Sounde
* Rembetissa by Roza Eskenazi
* “Repossess Man” by Droolin’ Floyd Womack
* “Skyful of Hearts” performed by Larry “Doc” Sportello
* “Something Happened to Me Yesterday” by The Rolling Stones
* “Something in the Air” by Thunderclap Newman
* “Soul Gidget” by Meatball Flag
* “Stranger in Love” performed by The Spaniels
* “Sugar Sugar” by The Archies
* “Super Market” by Fapardokly
* “Surfin’ Bird” by The Trashmen
* “Telstar” by The Tornados
* “Tequila” by The Champs
* Theme Song from “The Big Valley” performed by Beer
* “There’s No Business Like Show Business” by Ethel Merman
* Vincebus Eruptum by Blue Cheer
* “Volare” by Domenico Modugno
* “Wabash Cannonball” by Roy Acuff & His Crazy Tennesseans
* “Wipeout” by The Surfaris
* “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by The Beach Boys
* “Yummy Yummy Yummy” performed by Ohio Express

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