Mason & Dixon Companion

<p><i>Mason & Dixon </i>might be Thomas Pynchon's most human book. Its main characters are richly drawn and they center the narrative. Yet the novel is also packed with historical allusions and an eighteenth-century vernacular that some readers may find difficult to navigate.<i> A Mason & Dixon Companion</i> offers this navigation line by line unpacking Pynchon's puns his many references and his pet themes. Brett Biebel provides a contextual map episode-by-episode summaries and page-by-page annotations explaining allusions defining obscure vocabulary and illuminating the book's major themes. The goal is to help readers work their way through a difficult yet remarkably rewarding novel from one of American literature's most significant writers. <p/>In a voice that's both relaxed and informed the <i>Companion </i>illuminates what Harold Bloom called Pynchon's late masterpiece. It crystallizes the prescience of <i>Mason & Dixon</i> situating the novel within Pynchon's broader oeuvre while being fun to read in its own right.</p>