"An exhilarating spectacle of greatness discovering its powers." —New Republic
"Funny and wise enough to charm the gravity from a rainbow...All five of the pieces have unusual narrative vigor and inventiveness." —The New York Times
Compiling five short stories originally written between 1959 and 1964, Slow Learner showcases Thomas Pynchon’s writing before the publication of his first novel V. The stories compiled here are “The Small Rain,” “Low-lands,” “Entropy,” “Under the Rose,” and “The Secret Integration,” along with an introduction by Pynchon himself that Time Magazine calls his "first public gesture toward autobiography."
"Funny and wise enough to charm the gravity from a rainbow...All five of the pieces have unusual narrative vigor and inventiveness." —The New York Times
"How extremely good the stories are . . . how quickly they carry us into their scruffy, variegated, wonderfully imagined worlds." —The New York Times Book Review
"The apprentice work of a major novelist makes better reading than the mature productions of a dozen minor ones . . . Readers who discovered Pynchon's stories in little magazines in the late 1950s would have seen in them an adroit young talent that might bear watching. Readers who discover them now will find an exhilarating spectacle of greatness discovering its powers." —New Republic
"An exhilarating spectacle of greatness discovering its powers." —New Republic
"Funny and wise enough to charm the gravity from a rainbow...All five of the pieces have unusual narrative vigor and inventiveness." —The New York Times
Compiling five short stories originally written between 1959 and 1964, Slow Learner showcases Thomas Pynchon’s writing before the publication of his first novel V. The stories compiled here are “The Small Rain,” “Low-lands,” “Entropy,” “Under the Rose,” and “The Secret Integration,” along with an introduction by Pynchon himself that Time Magazine calls his "first public gesture toward autobiography."
Praise
"Funny and wise enough to charm the gravity from a rainbow...All five of the pieces have unusual narrative vigor and inventiveness." —The New York Times
"How extremely good the stories are . . . how quickly they carry us into their scruffy, variegated, wonderfully imagined worlds." —The New York Times Book Review
"The apprentice work of a major novelist makes better reading than the mature productions of a dozen minor ones . . . Readers who discovered Pynchon's stories in little magazines in the late 1950s would have seen in them an adroit young talent that might bear watching. Readers who discover them now will find an exhilarating spectacle of greatness discovering its powers." —New Republic
