Books: A Myth of Alligators

V. (492 pp.) Thomas Pynchon—Lippincott ($5.95).

There is a myth that the Manhattan sewer system is full of alligators.

The idea is that children bought baby alligators for pets, and when they got bored with them, they flushed them into the sewers. The myth is part of this likable, mad and unfathomable first novel. Not an integral part; Author Pynchon has taken great pains to ensure that his book has none of these. The novel is built on the plan of the expanding universe or of one of those whirling platforms at amusement parks; the reader...