Early short stories by Thomas Pynchon, introduced by the author and praised as an exhilarating spectacle of greatness discovering its powers by the New Republic. Thomas Pynchon’s literary career was launched not with the release of his widely acclaimed first novel, V., but with the publication in literary magazines of the five stories collected here. In his introduction to Slow Learner, the author reviews his early work with disarming candor and recalls the American cultural landscape of the early post-Beat era in which the stories were written. Time magazine described this introductory essay as Pynchon’s first public gesture toward autobiography. Funny and wise enough to charm the gravity from a rainbow…All five of the pieces have unusual narrative vigor and inventiveness. –New York Times