Thomas Pynchon - Inherent Vice

Every time I hear the old cliché, “If you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t really there,” on nearly every documentary chronicling the turbulent decade on VH1 Classic, I find myself rolling my eyes.

I have no disdain for the 1960s. American society and culture in the decade has always fascinated me. When I was in school, I’d always find myself returning to the subject when the time came to write a research paper. Vietnam, hippies and the drug culture, the Summer of Love, music, I’ve tried to learn as much as I can.

Fascination aside, however, I’ve always regarded the broad picture of the time (sex, drugs and revolution) with a little skepticism. There always had to be more to the decade.

I though I might see more of a skeptical view in Thomas Pynchon’s latest novel, Inherent Vice.

Instead, what I got was the tale of a stoner L.A. Detective, Larry “Doc” Sportello, following a case in a marijuana filled haze, getting pulled in multiple different directions as the focus of his case changes from preventing a real estate mogul from getting committed to a mental institution, to solving a murder, to reuniting a presumed-dead musician with his wife and daughter.

The basic conflict of the novel pits the easy-going doper, Sportello, against the Los Angeles police department and its well-to-do associates. A particular thorn in the P.I.’s side is the hippie-hating actor/detective Bigfoot Bjornsen, who, when he’s not trying to arrest Sportello, is trying to use him as a pawn in his personal vendetta against a criminal network known as the Golden Fang.

And so it goes for most of the novel. The book’s tone is relatively lighthearted and straightforward. There are no heavy-handed messages, or shocking twists or turns; any confusion in the story comes from the doped-up mind of Sportello himself.

There’s not much else to say about Inherent Vice. If you’re expecting a cynical, damning look at hippie culture, there’s none of that here. Instead, what Pynchon gives you is a smart, humorous trip through the end of the 1960s filled with sun, surf and plenty of dope.