#94 in Crime & mystery
Inherent Vice
- 384
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Inherent Vice” is Thomas Pynchon in a playful mood: a darkly comic detective novel soaked in the counterculture of 1970s California. Private eye Doc Sportello looks into a scheme around a land developer at his ex-girlfriend’s request, and the humour and the parade of colourfully named characters are the main pleasures. Some readers lose track of the huge cast and stop caring about the tangled plot. It counts among his more approachable novels.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Inherent Vice is a novel by the American author Thomas Pynchon, originally published on August 4, 2009. A darkly comic detective novel set in 1970s California, the plot follows sleuth Larry "Doc" Sportello whose ex-girlfriend asks him to investigate a scheme involving a prominent land developer. Themes of drug culture and counterculture are prominently featured. It is considered a postmodern novel that warps the stylistic conventions of detective fiction. Critical reception was largely positive, with reviewers describing Inherent Vice as one of Pynchon's more accessible works. The novel was adapted into a film in 2014.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 157 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 52% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Crime & mystery average of 7.6. That is how 7.8 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.6 | 15 | 10% |
| Hardcover | 8.0 | 142 | 90% |
Frequently asked
How long is Inherent Vice?
It has 384 pages — shorter than 62% of the ranked books in Crime & mystery.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Crime & mystery — and a score of 7.8, the closest to this book.
