‘A hugely ambitious epic about Americaand the Age of Reason and the originsof modernity that showcases all of MrPynchon's gifts as a writer：his magicalability to fuse history and fable，scienceand science fiction；his Swiftean graspof satire and his vaudevillian's senseof farce．It is a book that testifies to hisremarkable powers of invention andhis sheer power as a storyteller…as moving as it is cerebral，aspoignant as it is darlng’