Reports that the latest novel by Thomas Pynchon is due out in December might explain the reason why this notoriously reclusive author has suddenly become far less reclusive. Recently, a blurred photograph was released to the press with claims that it is of Pynchon returning home after making his weekly visit to his local herbal tea emporium.

‘He regularly adopts disguises,’ explains Dr. Leo Tepdan, Pynchon expert from the University of Prague. ‘It’s an extension of all many hundreds of characters he created for his novel, “Gravity’s Rainbow”. This old lady outfit is one he’s been using more recently, but I also know that he sometimes pretends to be a sailor, a bell-hop, and an Albanian harmonica maker’.

While Pynchon has always been able to surprise his fans with the unexpected, none could have expected this week’s announcement, through his agent, that Pynchon is currently in negotiations with the BBC to host the next series of Celebrity Come Dancing. If this notoriously unpredictable man decides to step into the spotlight, many believe he will finally bring to the foxtrot, tango, and the cha-cha-cha the intellectual respectability they have deserved for so long.

Meanwhile, early reviews of Pynchon’s new book, Against The Day, suggest that he compounds his flare for the illogical with a more straightforward attempt to write something readable. ‘I don’t want to spoil it for you,’ he has reportedly told friends, ‘but it’s a mystery involving a Belgian detective with impeccable manners and an unexplained obsession with his waxed moustache.’ He also laughed off suggestions that this novel was an attempt to gain wider popularity and would do little to add to his credentials as one of the world’s most complex exponents of the novel form. ‘Don’t worry,’ he is said to have added. ‘None of you will be able to get through it and it will remain on your shelf as a permanent reminder of how small your intellects are in the face of my greatness.’

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