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Introduction

The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) is a novel by Thomas Pynchon. The shortest of Pynchon's novels and often considered^{[by whom?]} his most accessible, the book is about a woman, Oedipa Maas, possibly unearthing the centuries-old conflict between two mail distribution companies, Thurn und Taxis and the Trystero (or Tristero). The former actually existed, and was the first firm to distribute postal mail; the latter is Pynchon's invention. The novel is often classified as a notable example of postmodern fiction.

Time included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.^[1]