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Article: PYNCHON DRAWS THE DEFINING PAIR : SURVEYING THE WORK OF MASON AND DIXON.(L.A. LIFE)(Review)
- Article from:
- Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
- Article date:
- April 27, 1997
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Daily News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: David Kipen Special to the Daily News
Title: ``Mason & Dixon''
Author: Thomas Pynchon
Data: 773 pages, Henry Holt; $27.50
Our rating: Four Stars
Thomas Pynchon can't even write a linear novel about the Mason-Dixon Line, but who in their right mind would want him to? Punch lines, not straight ones, have always been Pynchon's stock in trade. His newest book, ``Mason & Dixon'' - a masterpiece, by the way - is desperately serious, yet even the very best comic novels are as dirges next to it.
The novel reconstructs the story of the two Englishmen - Charles Mason, a melancholy professional astronomer lost in the ...