British literary critic Frank Kermode was disappointed by the book, feeling that it lacked the "beautiful ontological suspense" of "The Crying of Lot 49" or the "extended fictive virtuosity" of "Gravity's Rainbow". He did acknowledge that it was "recognisably from the same workshop" as Pynchon's previous outings but found it to be more incomprehensible. Brad Leithauser concurred, writing in "The New Yorker" that "Vineland" was "a loosely packed grab bag of a book" that recalled what was weakest about the author's canon and failed to extend or improve upon it. In the "Chicago Tribune", James McManus posited that while inveterate Pynchon readers likely would unfavorably compare the book to "Gravity's Rainbow", it was a manageable book with strong prose that succeeded as an arch and blackly amusing assault on the desires of Republican America.