Pynchon trades in his typical wordiness for a breezey and darkly funny noir set on the beaches of California in the 1960′s. Our overwhelmed hero, Doc Sportello, falls into a maze of femme fatales, wealthy real estate moguls and deception at every turn, all the while lit like a Christmas Tree. This is Chinatown on acid, Chandler by way of Douglas Adams. A Must-Read.