THE CRYING OF LOT gives students a quick punch of Thomas Pynchon's brand of postmodernism. Thomas Pynchon can throw students for a loop—but that's the whole point of Pynchon, isn't it?

Still, students need a bit of preparation before they step into the ring with Pynchon—and Thomas C. Foster, professor at the University of Michigan and the author of HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR, provides it in the second video in his The First Page series. Professor Foster shows students how paying close attention to the first page—even the first sentence—of THE CRYING OF LOT 49 will help them understand what is to come. Less