A List
2/19/01

SLU PROFESSOR'S GUIDE TO PYNCHON NOVEL IS PUBLISHED

CANTON -- A Companion to V., by St. Lawrence University Professor of 
English J. Kerry Grant, has been published by the University of Georgia 
Press. The book is a guide to reading the novel V., by Thomas Pynchon.
	According to the publishers, Pynchon's book "seems to defy comprehension 
with its open-ended and fragmented narrative, huge cast of characters 
(some 150 of them), and wide range of often obscure references. Grant's 
Companion to V. takes readers through the novel chapter by chapter, breaking 
through its daunting surface by summarizing events and clarifying Pynchon's 
many allusions."
 	Many of the notes that comprise Grant's book provide historical and 
cultural context, as well as interpretation. "Rather than attempting to make 
final sense of the novel, the Companion exposes and demystifies Pynchon's 
intent to play with our conventional attitudes about fiction," publishers note.
	Grant is also the author of another guide to a Pynchon novel, A Companion 
to The Crying of Lot 49.
	A member of the St. Lawrence faculty since 1977, Grant is a graduate of 
Cambridge University, with a master's degree from the University of East Anglia 
and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

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