While Thomas Pynchon is usually described as an American author who primarily writes about American reality, Planetary Pynchon: History, Modernity, and the Anthropocene argues that his major novels, Gravity's Rainbow, Mason & Dixon, and Against the Day, can profitably be read as a global trilogy that presents a coherent historical account of how the emergence and spread of European modernity across the world have had devastating consequences for the planet and its inhabitants. This book sets a new agenda in Pynchon studies, charting his early anticipation of anthropocenic and planetary ideas, including globalization's demand for constant growth. It combines close textual readings with broad perspectives on large thematic arcs and stylistic developments across Pynchon's entire career as well as an extensive dialogue with the rich reception of his work.

‘Planetary Pynchon puts together a sensitive, accurate portrait of an author whose works seem, on reflection, less a ‘resigned demonstration’ of the imperfect ‘way the world works’ and rather more ‘an invitation for us to act differently’.’

Guy Stevenson Source: Times Literary Supplement

‘Andersen … writes with panache and in a vivid style, free of obscuring jargon …’

Jeffrey Severs Source: Orbit: A Journal of American Literature

‘Erecting a conceptual bridge from the colonial and imperial discourses that inform modern global capitalism to the critical environmentalisms that make up the growing field of Anthropocene studies, Andersen delivers an ambitiously conceived and deeply rewarding analysis of one the most important American novelists of the post−World War II era.’

Patrick Whitmarsh Source: Studies in the Novel