There are no other contemporary novelists whose works resemble those of Thomas Pynchon, but his appeal rests on more than the (i) _________ displayed in his work. In an age when novelists largely limit their observations to lightweight banter about sexuality, Pynchon still offers (ii) _________ commentary about human nature.

Thoman Pynchon is one of a kind novelist whose work is beyond comparison. "more than" means more than "one of a kind" or unrivaled. We need a synonym that match with this concept. From the options, eccentricity is the closest match.

Other novelists sometimes go off the rails and introduce raillery into their work, but Pynchon stays to the point and offers incisive or "trenchant" commentary.

Answer is B and D.

Why not enigmatic as the clue here is 'lightweight banter'?

That clue works exactly in the opposite way. I.E meanwhile the others offer to lightweight banter about sexuality, he offer instead an in-depth and articulate vision = trenchant


Hope this helps

why cant we use enigmatic in the second blank
it matches with eccentricity

No

See my explanation just above your reply.

Your goal is NOT to find a clue and try to match a word in the same direction or in the opposite direction, and that's it.

Your goal is first and foremost to understand the meaning of the question and to try to anticipate the correct answer.

Regards

There are no other contemporary novelists whose works resemble those of Thomas Pynchon, but his appeal rests on more than the (i) _________ displayed in his work. In an age when novelists largely limit their observations to lightweight banter about sexuality, Pynchon still offers (ii) _________ commentary about human nature.

Lets take the first sentence:

There are no other contemporary novelists whose works resemble those of Thomas Pynchon, but his appeal rests on more than the (i) _________ displayed in his work.

The sentence starts by stating that Thomas Pynchon's works are unique. The second part of the sentence suggests there are reasons for his work's appeal, than the ones we already know - namely uniqueness. The second part of the sentence, can therefore completed as follows:

but his appeal rests on more than the (i) uniqueness displayed in his work.

The word from the choice list is eccentricity

Now let us look at the second sentence.

In an age when novelists largely limit their observations to lightweight banter about sexuality, Pynchon still offers (ii) _________ commentary about human nature.

The phrases "In an age" along with "still" suggest a contrast between two ideas.

And what are the two ideas?

One, novelists largely limit their observations to lightweight banter about sexuality. Clearly, the other idea has to be serious commentary, as only that will contrast with "lightweight banter".

Pynchon still offers (ii) serious commentary about human nature.

The word from the choice list is trenchant.

There are no other contemporary novelists whose works resemble those of Thomas Pynchon, but his appeal rests on more than the (i) _________ displayed in his work. In an age when novelists largely limit their observations to lightweight banter about sexuality, Pynchon still offers (ii) _________ commentary about human nature.

i. From the beginning sentence, something is 'unique' here,
ii. we are not sure what it can be that should be 'more than the SOMETHING displayed may be common thing
iii. In other works, we are finding something common/lightweight, Pynchon offers something COMPLEX, (opposite of lightweight), it cannot be insipid = weak, it cannot be enigmatic = complex, difficult to understand (out of context), so trenchant which is deep seems correct.
iv. In the first gap, something should be UNIQUE, the patrimony, related to father, orthodoxy = traditional seems inappropriate, so the eccentricity seems correct here.

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