# New novel by Thomas Pynchon, Shadow Ticket, to be released 10/07/25!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-novel-by-thomas-pynchon-shadow-ticket-to-be-released-10-07-25/1016834>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** books-writing-myths\
**Created:** [April 9, 2025, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-novel-by-thomas-pynchon-shadow-ticket-to-be-released-10-07-25/1016834 "2025-04-09T16:07:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-novel-by-thomas-pynchon-shadow-ticket-to-be-released-10-07-25/1016834/1 "2025-04-09T16:07:39Z")

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> **[Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon: 9781594206108 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316427/shadow-ticket-by-thomas-pynchon/)**
>
> The new novel from Thomas Pynchon 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...

Clocking in at a comparatively short 384 pages, it apparently is another detective novel, taking place in the 30s and exploring locations as disparate as Milwaukee and Hungary.

It will be his ninth novel and comes 12 years after his most recent, Bleeding Edge (2013).

Really looking forward to this! It will be the first new one published since I started reading him several years ago.

Now to get through the next seven months!

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2025, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-novel-by-thomas-pynchon-shadow-ticket-to-be-released-10-07-25/1016834/2 "2025-04-09T16:17:44Z")

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I love Thomas Pynchon. (Seems like only yesterday that _Bleeding Edge_ came out, though I remember thinking on a couple of occasions, it’s been a few years.)

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**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2025, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-novel-by-thomas-pynchon-shadow-ticket-to-be-released-10-07-25/1016834/3 "2025-10-29T08:23:29Z")

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I finally finished reading this!

The good news is, this is a solid second-stage Pynchon novel. Let me explain, for those unfamiliar.

Pynchon made his reputation with his first three novels: _V._ (1963), _The Crying Of Lot 49_ (1966), and _Gravity’s Rainbow_ (1973). From these—especially _Gravity’s Rainbow_—he developed his reputation as a forbidding and difficult writer, which is somewhat overstated if you ask me, but whatever.

Anyhoo, after the seminal _Gravity’s Rainbow_, he took an almost 20 year break from publishing, and his next new work of fiction was 1990’s _Vineland_, the reaction to which was decidedly nonplussed (though recently it was rather loosely adapted as a film—_One Battle After Another_—which seems to have been proven rather popular).

There is a cranky lot of Pynchonistas—we’re generally a cranky lot anyway—who view his post-_Gravity’s Rainbow_ work as “Pynchon-lite.” This book will not satisfy them. But I would rank it above _Bleeding Edge_ and maybe _Vineland_ in his later period, though I must still admire _Against The Day_ and _Mason & Dixon_ as the most ambitious of his later period books. (_Mason & Dixon_ is probably my favorite of his books—you have to get used to its fake period language, but it’s easier than you might expect).