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Mad Men (2007)/S5E8 · Lady Lazarus/Pete's commute: The Crying of Lot 49
Mad Men · Season 5, Episode 8, "Lady Lazarus"

Pete's commute: The Crying of Lot 49

Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser) · Commuter train

Pete's commute: The Crying of Lot 49. Evidence card from Mad Men: The Crying of Lot 49Get credit for sleuthing this sceneDrop the frame
Mad Men · S5 E8Sleuthed by @shelfsleuth
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What it tells you

Lady Lazarus opens on Pete reading Thomas Pynchon on the train into the city. Time called it heavy reading for a commute. The NYPL notes the prop was a collectible copy in a fine dust jacket, which is about as Pete as a paperback gets. He spends the episode chasing Beth, the wife of a fellow commuter, so a book about a hidden world under a normal suburb was fair warning.

Sources: The "Mad Men" Reading List, New York Public Library · The Books of 'Mad Men', LitReactor · 10 Books 'Mad Men' Characters Have Read on the Show, Bustle · Mad Men: The Literary Hits, Chicago Public Library · Mad Men Recap: Rory Gilmore, the Beatles, Phone-Booth Lies, Time
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The book

Cover of The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

The Crying of Lot 49

Thomas Pynchon · 1966 · novel

Pynchon's 1966 novel, his shortest, in which Oedipa Maas is named executor of an ex-lover's estate and stumbles onto an underground mail network called the Tristero. Pynchon has kept away from cameras for decades. Pete would have loved a secret postal service, given what he gets up to on the phone.

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Sleuthed by @shelfsleuth · 2026-10-22

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