Comment on style/language

Pynchon writes in a loose and fluid style that moves quickly, rapidly changing characters and settings. The narrative unfolds in parts with frequent jumps backward and forward in time to fill in gaps from earlier passages.

Pynchon's writing is informal, with the regular use of contractions and slang. His characters speak naturally, often with a "California" accent, and he reflects their pronunciation and inflection by using unconventional spelling and punctuation. "Really" is spelled "rilly," for example, and question marks appear at the end of sentences that are not questions to indicate a rising of the voice.