A New Novel by Thomas Pynchon Will Arrive as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Vineland Adaptation Hits Theaters

While Warner Bros. has yet to officially confirm themselves, thanks to a since-deleted WGA filing, reports from test screenings, and clues that can be deduced from the official trailer, Paul Thomas Anderson will be delivering his second Thomas Pynchon adaptation this fall with One Battle After Another. This time updating Vineland for the modern era, following the director’s Inherent Vice a decade ago, Pynchon fans now have another major reason to celebrate this fall.

Pynchon, the genius artist whose reclusiveness may only be matched by Terrence Malick, will release his first novel since 2013’s Bleeding Edge this October. About 12 days after One Battle After Another hits theaters on September 26, Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket will arrive on October 7, Penguin Random House announced early this morning. Clocking in at 384 pages, see the synopsis below and one can pre-order the novel here.

Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a one-time strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement—and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with. Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.

As for One Battle After Another, it sounds like PTA is still hard at work in post-production, so take any trade reports with a grain of salt.

The post A New Novel by Thomas Pynchon Will Arrive as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Vineland Adaptation Hits Theaters first appeared on The Film Stage.