"He faults Pynchon, though, for projecting on the Afghan terrorists his own world view, since he represents them as anarchists resisting the influence of the centre by blowing up the railways. But it is difficult to imagine how even so accomplished a writer as Pynchon could avoid projecting his own view in imagining such a world. This is exactly what Milton had done, after all, in his moving representation of the blind and uncertain Samson, suddenly finding a way to fulfil the plan he thinks he was born for." Neil Forsyth on Feisal G. Mohamed • TLS

---