Thomas Pynchon (b. 1937) - one of the most interesting, significant and cited representatives of US postmodern literature, has not been published in Russian (with the exception of one story). "Lot 49 Screams Out" (1966) - an intellectual novel of secrets is successfully complemented by the writer's early stories, which allow us to trace the emergence of the unique style of one of the founders of the genre of "black humor". Pynchon's work - "Lot 49 Screams Out" (1966) - can be considered a parody of the Gothic novel . The heroine Oedipa Maas, after the death of her former lover, becomes the heir to his fortune. She is trying to understand inheritance matters and accidentally discovers a secret postal organization. Her search leads her to past centuries, to old Europe, where this society arose in defiance of the official postal service, and then spread across America, turning into a means of underground communication. The novel Lot 49 Shouts out recreates mid-century America - a country of lonely people. This is done against the backdrop of a heap of gothic mysteries, parody situations of horror and adventure. Pynchon emphasizes that in this country love is rejected as the most famous way of human communication. It sounds ironic to say that a psychoanalyst in the most developed country in the world is as common as a dentist. It is even advisable to have a suicide prevention service there. Paranoia becomes the only means of communication. The author “marks” the heroes who escape from the prosperous philistinism with mental illness. It turns out that only mentally ill people retain the ability to communicate.