Inherent Vice  by Thomas Pynchon

With Inherent Vice, Pynchon does an admirable job of tackling and integrating the realms of the hard boiled gumshoe and early 70's California hippie culture. He gets there by way of his protagonist, Doc, a constantly stoned P.I., who seems to just float through the novel, his altered state taking just enough of the edge off of every jam in which he finds himself. Pynchon in turn does just enough with the plot to keep the mystery interesting, but is at his best capturing the mood of the naivete that was both the hippie movement's charm and its undoing. The LAPD is, perhaps, the novel's true villain, and in a world where the cops are more noir than the criminals it comes as no surprise that peace and love faded away into the smog of 70's LA. Inherent Vice is at its core a lament for a dream that never really was, but one that is remembered fondly nevertheless.