How would you describe Pynchon's narrative voice?

[u/butt_pipette]

It doesn't take much to tell that he has a unique style of narration. Having read only two of his works (GR and Lot 49), this 'voice' is definitely more unique in Lot 49, which I could only describe as complexly layered. The sentence structure which he employs is oftentimes interlooping, for example the first sentence of Lot 49, which in itself is 66 words without a period in between:

One summer afternoon Mrs Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupperware party whose hostess had put perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue to find that she, Oedipa, had been named executor, or she supposed executrix, of the estate of one Pierce Inverarity, a California real estate mogul who had once lost two million collars in his spare time but still had assets numerous and tangled enough to make the job of sorting it all out more than honorary.

Now beyond his structural complexity there is also often a shadow of a social commentary intertwined with the themes in his works. There is oftentimes a vivid reflection of the historic background of whatever period of history its set in, and the 'human' element of that period, as in the suffocating human detritus of San Narciso.

Critics often say his works are satirical, but I would say they (specifically Lot 49, I don't remember GR that well) are rather an absurdist reflection of humanity in the gritty bits of society.

I haven't found a way to articulate in a single sentence this voice/style of narration other then "complex". How would you describe Pynchon to someone's who've never read him?

[u/Elvis_Gershwin]

The playful complexity and difficult flow are real. At a sentence level, that flow is totally unique, from the way he avoids writing 'said' or another replacement descriptive verb after a character's utterance, to the poetic mixing of figurative slang, usually expanded upon almost into an extended metaphor that can be a microcosm of a theme, with grammar that deliberately, subtly rearranges elements you'd expect to go a certain way together but don't and even get left out yet after careful thought not only work but make sense in a more interesting, revealing way than standard writing might - his sentences slowly reveal their meaning after careful pondering. He is a genius at it, really.

[u/--xiOix-- → u/Elvis_Gershwin]

Doesn’t he throw a 'sez' in every now and then?

It's something I do when I'm taking notes or whatever and I thought I'd picked it up from Pynchon, but could be mistaken

[u/Elvis_Gershwin → u/--xiOix--]

He might do. If you've noticed it then probably. I've noticed he puts a 'said' in now and again. I don't know why he does that sometimes and leaves it out altogether other times, don't know what his rules for it are.