For an infamous recluse nearing ninety, Thomas Pynchon seems to be everywhere. He’s been in the news lately with confirmation that auteur P. T. Anderson is loosely adapting the postmodernist master’s novel Vineland (1990) for a new feature. Scheduled for release in September, One Battle after Another stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, and Teyana Taylor. Then, in early April, Penguin Random House announced a new novel, Pynchon’s first since Bleeding Edge (2013).
Waiting is hard, but we have a solution for how to spend these agonizing next few months: get up to speed on Pynchon’s life and work. Begin with John Miller’s biographical overview from Dictionary of Literary Biography, Twenty-First Century Novelists, before turning to the entry on Vineland included in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Getting context for these exciting forthcoming works is the best way we know of following Pynchon’s timeless advice to “Keep cool but care.”