Article: PYNCHON DRAWS THE DEFINING PAIR : SURVEYING THE WORK OF MASON AND DIXON.(L.A. LIFE)(Review)

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 ...

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