What has made Thomas Pynchon finally break cover? Alongside J.D. Salinger, he is seen as one of the most secretive living novelists, refusing to give interviews or play the fame game. A few years ago a paparazzo claimed to have snapped the American author, most famous for his 1973 novel Gravity’s Rainbow, but Pynchon wouldn’t confirm that the image was of him. In 1997, CNN filmed him in Manhattan, prompting Pynchon to phone the news channel and request they didn’t use the footage. The only picture that exists of him is as a fresh-faced serviceman in the US Navy, taken in 1957.
The plight of Ian McEwan, accused of plagiarism, has brought Pynchon into the light. It has been said that McEwan copied details from