I could not get into this. I respect Pynchon on so many levels, but The Crying of Lot 49, at about 100 pgs, is about all of him I can handle. Honestly, huge postmodern texts like this one tend to depress me.
Among the list of recommended books mentioned in an appendix to Stephen King's 1981 treatise on horror 'Danse Macabre', I found the plot for 'V.' to be impenetrable. Definitely offbeat but too deep to follow.