#30 in Literary fiction
V.
- 492
- Pages
- about 9 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“V.” is Thomas Pynchon’s wide-ranging satirical debut: a discharged sailor, an ageing traveller and a quest for something known only by an initial. One strand stays with Benny Profane and his bohemian circle in New York; the other follows Herbert Stencil’s search from city to city and back in time. Some readers find it slow going and still judge the effort repaid. Others give up, finding the prose dull.
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
V. is a satirical postmodern novel and the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon, published on March 18, 1963. It describes the exploits of a discharged U.S. Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohemian artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveler named Herbert Stencil to identify and locate the mysterious entity he knows only as "V." It was nominated for a National Book Award.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.6 across 107 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 42% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Literary fiction average of 8.1. That is how 7.9 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.4 | 13 | 12% |
| Google Books | 6.0 | 6 | 6% |
| Hardcover | 7.8 | 88 | 82% |
Frequently asked
How long is V.?
It has 492 pages — longer than 74% of the ranked books in Literary fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Literary fiction — with scores between 7.7 and 8.1, closest to this book.
