Inherent Vice

Inherent Vice is a novel by the American writer Thomas Pynchon, published in August 2009. Its title refers to a legal term for a hidden defect in an object that causes its deterioration, known in Spanish as vicio redhibitorio.

The story is set in Los Angeles in the early 1970s and follows Larry "Doc" Sportello, a private investigator and habitual marijuana user. His former girlfriend, Shasta Fay Hepworth, asks for his help after her new lover, the real-estate magnate Michael Z. "Mickey" Wolfmann, disappears. Doc becomes entangled in a plot that resembles a classic noir, involving a shadowy organization, corrupt police officers and countercultural circles.

Pynchon paints a sprawling picture of California, populated by surfers, Vietnam veterans, prison gangs and echoes of Charles Manson, all wrapped in a digressive comic tone and a mood of psychedelic nostalgia. It is regarded as a postmodern novel that bends the conventions of detective fiction, and critics received it largely favorably, often citing it as one of Pynchon's more accessible works. In 2014 Paul Thomas Anderson adapted it into a film starring Joaquin Phoenix.