After reading The Crying of Lot 49, this was a relief.
Vivid characters and interesting stories with a lot less commas and run on sentences. The story selection cuts a wide swath through society, embracing soldiers, garbage men & gypsies, college partying, spies, and the best of childrens make believe games.

A keen eye for detail, both in specificity and volume, keeps the stories from getting lost in their own words. If you've never read Pynchon, I would recommend this as good book to start with, ( )

Five early stories, with some of the same rambunctiousness of Pynchon's later novels. The only story that particularly feels out of place is "Under the Rose", a foray into John Buchan territory - a real yawner. "The Secret Integration" and "The Small Rain" are perhaps the most successful stories. The remainder seem to have something essentially Pynchonian missing, but of course they were written as the author was finding his voice. Pynchon's introduction attempts to put these stories from the late 50's - early 60's into perspective, and acts as a sort of apologia for the deficiencies of the stories. Necessary reading for the die-hard fan only.

http://home.comcast.net/~tonydal/wise... ( )

Favorite Story - "The Secret Integration" ( )

Worth reading for any Pynchon fan, these stories are more approachable than his larger novels. The introduction is interesting for its autobiographical elements, since there's so little information about him available.

The five stories clearly improve in quality from the first to the last, although I have to admit a personal preference for "Under the Rose" (the fourth) over "The Secret Integration" (the fifth). The latter is probably a better piece of writing, but I like the dark humor and the notion of one person and his doomed fight against the advancing of the world around him. ( )