V.

First lines

Christmas Eve, 1955, Benny Profane, wearing black levis, suede jacket, sneakers and big cowboy hat, happened to pass through Norfolk, Virginia.

About this book

Having just been released from the Navy, Benny Profane is content to lead a slothful existence with his friends, where the only real ambition is to perfect the art of "schlemihlhood," or being a dupe, and where "responsibility" is a dirty word. Among his pals--called the Whole Sick Crew--is Slab, an artist who can't seem to paint anything other than cheese danishes. But Profane's life changes dramatically when he befriends Stencil, an active ambitious young man with an intriguing mission--to find out the identity of a woman named V [Victoria Wren], who knew Stencil's father during the war, but who suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.

Themes & subjects

About the author

Thomas Pynchon

8 May 1937

Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist based in New York City and noted for his dense and complex works of fiction. Hailing from Long Island, Pynchon spent 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](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2636665W) (1966), Gravity's Rainbow (1973), and Mason & Dixon (1997). Source and more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon