[jrumbut]

I would recommend The Crying of Lot 49 over Inherent Vice, if you're looking for a shorter novel.

I'm not saying his more recent novels are bad, per se, but I would only read them if you exhaust the earlier works and still want more.

[WastingMyTime89]

Deeply disagree.

Inherent Vice is extremely funny. It’s like a more successful Vineland, itself a good book. They are extremely good.

The Crying of Lot 49 is also good but it feels somewhat rushed. It was written to get some money while writing Gravity’s rainbow and it shows.

[Apocryphon]

I’ve been trying to read Bleeding Edge mostly for the tech startup scene and Y2K setting.

It reads a lot like a Douglas Coupland novel, especially JPod.