This is a first edition of the book. The action takes place during the Battle of Britain during WWII. The writing is deeply symbolic and difficult to comprehend without aguidance. Helterman has written a guid book to the novel that is also held by the Sackner Archive. Pynchon deals with paranoia, tarot characters, experimental pyschology, Freudian theory, calculus, comic strip mythology, and eroticism, etc. in this book. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.