The exhausting plenitude of loosely connected detail in Gravity’s Rainbow makes it a favorite of postmodern critics, who claim it describes a modern, random, unknowable universe. Hume expands the possibilities as she discloses a mythic structure that underlies Pynchon’s work and provides easier access to his world.

“Myth turns chaos into cosmos,” Hume explains, describing how the profuse detail of Pynchon’s book allows for the creation of a “world humankind shapes out of chaos by means of ritual and myth. . . a set of interlocking stories. . . [that] fit into a narrative sequence or mythology that conveys, supports, and challenges cultural values.”

Pynchon’s “mythology is not rigidly consistent,” Hume notes, but “several strands of mythological action. . . serve a stabilizing function in this chaotic book.” Pynchon creates his own “unheroic” hero to show the way for making sense of the fragmented experience of life in the postmodern world.