Shadow Ticket

By: Thomas Pynchon

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

A New York Times Bestseller • A New York Times, Washington Post, and Associated Press Notable Book • Named a Best Book of the Year by The Los Angeles Times, Vulture, TIME, The Guardian, The New Republic, and LitHub

The new novel from Thomas Pynchon, author of Gravity's Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49, Vineland, and Inherent Vice.

“A masterpiece.” —The Telegraph

“Bonkers and brilliant fun.” —The Washington Post

“Late Pynchon at his finest. Dark as a vampire’s pocket, light-fingered as a jewel thief, Shadow Ticket capers across the page with breezy, baggy-pants assurance — and then pauses on its way down the fire escape just long enough to crack your heart open.” —The Los Angeles Times

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 onetime 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.

Pynchon at his most concise

there may be one more! yay! but if this is the last, bit the ticket, take the ride. planned on reading, using audio only as back up, ended up listening to it all and it was worth it. now will go back and read

Awesome writing

Pynchon has done it again - crafting another perfect story - this book fits perfectly between Against the Day and Gravity’s Rainbow

A lovely style with a nothing story

Really wonderful prose and I admire Pynchon’s ability to have so much packed into such little space. It’s a romp and good fun, but without any semblance of narrative besides the hot-trotting galivants across Europe. It’s a lovely sendoff for a writer who put together some fabulous, polarizing work over the last 60 years. Didn’t expect Gravity’s Rainbow, nor the disgrace of Bleeding Edge, and found myself happy to see a master leave us with a resonant warning that America is careening to toward fascism, and the most unlikely and imperfect of us may be the ones bed equipped to combat it.

Gravity’s Rainbow Light

This reminds me a lot of TP’s epic work from 50 years ago. This has the same super attention to historical details that you never heard of mixed with a complicated plot, loads of colorful characters, physics, engineering and highly improbable events. My only disappointment is it’s only 1/3 the length of Gravity’s Rainbow.

Absolutely Perfect

There is nobody better than Thomas Pynchon. I finished this book in two days. I can’t recommend it enough.