Video: Thomas Pynchon Narrates His Own Book Trailer

Posted on August 13, 2009

The reclusive author Thomas Pynchon really is the voice of the narrator in the new book trailer for Pynchon's new book, Inherent Vice. Entertainment Weekly has the scoop:

So it turns out that Thomas Pynchon really does sound like The Dude from The Big Lebowski. Tracy Locke of The Penguin Press confirms that the reclusive author narrates the trailer for his new book, Inherent Vice, which we wrote about on Shelf Life yesterday. Of course, Simpsons fans might have recognized the voice from Pynchon's memorable guest appearance - with a paper bag over his head - in a 2004 episode of the long-running Fox series. (In fact, the Wall Street Journal went so far as to send the Simpsons clip and a Pynchon-voiced German TV spot to a Michigan-based sound engineer and voice identification expert to help prove it's Pynchon on the trailer.)

Pynchon wrote the text for the voiceover himself. The narrator is the book's hero, Doc Sportello, a private eye in 1970s Los Angeles.

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