They got into the habit of early-morning coffee at the Austrian Pavilion, accompanied by a variety of baked goods.
* * * * * * * * * *
"They" being Lew, the disgraced interdimensional hopping private dick, and Max, the young Slavic assassin given an American assignment to get him as far away from Austria as possible. They seem to have hit it off, just one banished Joe to another. Caffeine and baked goods seem to symbolize comfort, camaraderie, and story telling in a Pynchon novel. At least in two Pynchon novels, this one and Mason & Dixon. It's also possible there was a scene with coffee and baked goods in Gravity's Rainbow but it evaded my perception being that it wasn't something that was on my radar while reading it.
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