"How does the style of Gravity's Rainbow fit into your account of "20th-c" story-telling?"
GR was the only Pynchon book I actually managed to read to the end. It's main thesis, that WWII was not over, bowled me over; and I think it's true.
What I remember about the style was that it was beat-like, rhapsodic, and very sophomoric. All the little details that abound are the sort that scholarly grads pick up here and there, so it was less than amusing or impressive.
But for me, he is a far thing from a story teller.
Joanna