Abstract

Alexei Lalo's Thomas Pynchon and His America is the first book-length study of Pynchon in post-Soviet American Studies. The fact that it is the first one determines much of the character of the research. The volume of Pynchon criticism in Western academia is huge, while in the former Soviet Union Pynchon's work has not been widely available for long (the first Russian translations of his early novels appeared in 2000)' nor has it been studied in depth. Thus, any Russian-language scholar of Pynchon undertaking solid research in the field inevitably falls between these two extremes of accessibility and depth, and risks losing his or her independent position while representing other critics' interpretations. Lalo's study exemplifies this problem, for it serves more as a useful guide to secondary sources on Pynchon than as an intriguing investigation of truly new aspects of his work.

How to Cite:

Toymentsev, S., (2001) “Full-Length Portrait in a Post-Soviet Frame”, Pynchon Notes , 264-266. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/pn.110