I disagree. The evidence in quotation, plot detail and story-line convinced me it was either Pynchon or a brilliant mimic. None else does it like this.
I've read all of Pynchon's books and a lot of books whose authors were clearly inspired by Pynchon, and I don't see any reason to assume this doesn't fall into the latter category, especially after reading a few pages online. For one thing, I think it would be the first Pynchon novel written in the first person. The prose also seems markedly less lyrical than Pynchon's.
I mean, if Pynchon put his name on this, I wouldn't say, "I disbelieve this, he must be attaching his name to someone else's work," but I would say, "Huh, he really changed up his style for this one." But he didn't put his name on this.
Pynchon wrote several short stories in highschool in the first person. See Voice of the Hamster (http://genius.com/Thomas-pynchon-voice-of-the-hamster-annota...). I find the similarities between this story and Cow Country interesting (as it takes place at Hamster High.) Dr. Felch would fit right in.
In addition, Pynchon's style of narration employs so much free indirect speech that it often begs to become first person.
What did you say when Mason & Dixon was published?
I said, "Huh, he really changed up his style for this one." It did have the same lyrical qualities as his other work, though. More importantly, it had his name rather than someone else's on the cover, which slightly increased my prior for whether he wrote it or not.
...except for writers that DO write like pynchon (e.g. DFW, Bolaño, Gaddis, Barth, though none of them would HAVE to to imitate him). Pynchon is distinctive but hardly unique.
Suppose one of those five (or others with which you are familiar) was the "actual" author of Cow Country. Who would you guess it was, based on the Amazon preview?
Honestly the preview doesn't read to me like any of them, Pynchon included. When I tried to think of a name that I wouldn't be surprised to see on the cover, the first one that came to mind was Austin Grosmman.
I am not saying that he wrote it! Just that the style of this book (based on a few pages) is much closer to his (and many other writers of his generation) than to Pynchon's.
This reads nothing like Pynchon.
I agree that the author of the article managed to convey a different impression quite successfully.