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Thomas Pynchon


Born
in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, The United States
May 08, 1937

Website

Genre
Literary Fiction, Classics

Influences
Richard Fariña, T.S. Eliot, Vladimir Nabokov, Kafka, Henry Miller, Jac ...more


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 ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 4.17 · 1,964,979 ratings · 85,932 reviews · 64 distinct works • Similar authors
The Crying of Lot 49
3.69 avg rating — 100,496 ratings — published 1966 — 174 editions
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Gravity’s Rainbow
4.02 avg rating — 49,563 ratings — published 1973 — 22 editions
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Inherent Vice
3.80 avg rating — 39,448 ratings — published 2009 — 75 editions
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V.
3.97 avg rating — 25,836 ratings — published 1963 — 137 editions
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Vineland
3.74 avg rating — 19,288 ratings — published 1990 — 5 editions
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Mason & Dixon
4.15 avg rating — 12,988 ratings — published 1997 — 70 editions
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Bleeding Edge
3.63 avg rating — 14,508 ratings — published 2013 — 2 editions
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Against the Day
4.06 avg rating — 10,402 ratings — published 2006 — 51 editions
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Shadow Ticket
3.45 avg rating — 6,889 ratings — published 2025 — 14 editions
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Slow Learner
3.53 avg rating — 5,534 ratings — published 1984 — 41 editions
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More books by Thomas Pynchon…

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Quotes by Thomas Pynchon  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Every weirdo in the world is on my wavelength.”
― Thomas Pynchon
2487 likes
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“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
tags: paranoia, proverbs, wit
1772 likes
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“Life's single lesson: that there is more accident to it than a man can ever admit to in a lifetime and stay sane.”
― Thomas Pynchon, V.
1206 likes
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Polls

Please vote on our Summer (Q3) 2026 book. These are all 700+ page behemoths. We’ll take 3 months to work through it.

11/22/63 by Stephen King 11.22.63 by Stephen King 11.22.63 by Stephen King 22-11-1963 by Stephen King Dallas '63 by Stephen King JFK 11.22.63 by Stephen King Stephen King
11/22/63 by Stephen King (2011)
Pages: 849 | Rated: 4.35 | Ratings: 682K
 
  5 votes, 55.6%

Anathem by Neal Stephenson Neal Stephenson
Anathem by Neal Stephenson (2008)
Pages: 890 | Rated: 4.17 | Ratings: 76K
 
  3 votes, 33.3%

Executive Orders (Jack Ryan, #8) by Tom Clancy Executive Orders (Jack Ryan, #8; Jack Ryan Universe #9) by Tom Clancy Executive Orders (Jack Ryan, #8) by Tom Clancy Executive Orders Do not miss this edge-of-your-seat Tom Clancy thriller (Jack Ryan Book 7) by Tom Clancy Executive Orders (Jack Ryan Universe #9; Jack Ryan, #8) by Tom Clancy Tom Clancy
Executive Orders by Tom Clancy (1996)
Pages: 1273 | Rated: 4.12 | Ratings: 54K
 
  1 vote, 11.1%

Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon Thomas Pynchon
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973)
Pages: 766 | Rated: 4.02 | Ratings: 49K
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

Reamde by Neal Stephenson Neal Stephenson
Reamde by Neal Stephenson (2011)
Pages: 1044 | Rated: 4.00 | Ratings: 57K
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

9 total votes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

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