Pynchon decides to take on Humboldt county and shakes it up in his wild eighties ride with stoners and mini-movie moguls, pop culture loving tow truck operators and renegade film makers. There are rich kids and Japanese businessmen but not of the buttoned up variety. Sexy young women get it on with well endowed FBI and other questionable officers of the law. (What law is kinda the point). But automobiles also offer sexual delights as well.
There are flashbacks on-top flashbacks but the main thread takes place in Reagan’s 1984 morning in America yet the book is published in 1990. While the arms for hostages scandals doesn’t garner a mention, some of the escapades point in that direction.
It’s not that the plot isn’t important and there are serious themes, plenty of spot-on satire but for me Pynchon is pure prose fireworks; screamers and sparklers, duds and light up the nighters. He has no fear and he helps get me into that mindset too.
