NEW YORK, Sept 15 — “Cow Country,” a 540-page satirical novel about a dysfunctional community college, landed with a thud when it came out in April. It has amassed all of two reviews on Amazon in the months since its publication, and has been largely overlooked by critics.

But the book got an unexpected boost this week when one critic floated a theory that the obscure novel was actually written by Thomas Pynchon, the celebrated author who is a subject of fascination to many as much for his reclusive nature as for his pyrotechnic prose.

In an essay on the website for Harper’s Magazine, the critic, Art Winslow, argued that Pynchon had pulled a sly prank on the literary establishment by publishing “Cow Country” under the pen name Adrian Jones Pearson, partly to prove that no one would bother reading a novel by an unknown writer.

It was a compelling theory, one that seemed in keeping with an author known for his playful high jinks. (Pynchon has made a cameo appearance on “The Simpsons,” in which he voiced a disguised cartoon version of himself, and narrated a book trailer for his novel “Inherent Vice.”) And thanks to the air of mystery that has long surrounded Pynchon’s persona, it was given credence by some online.

Unfortunately for lovers of conspiracy theories, and for readers who might leap at a new Pynchon novel, Winslow’s bombshell may not be much of a revelation.

Pynchon’s publisher, Penguin Press, and his literary agent, Melanie Jackson, who is also his wife, swiftly shot down the suggestion that he was behind the book.

“He did not write ‘Cow Country,’” Jackson wrote in an email message.

The literary critic Steven Moore, who wrote a blurb for “Cow Country,” was likewise unequivocal.

“He’s wrong — it’s not Pynchon,” Moore said, adding that he knew the identity of the author.

Moore said the author contacted him about a year and a half ago. The author thanked Moore for mentioning one of his earlier books, which he published under a different name, in Moore’s study “The Novel: An Alternative History.” He later sent Moore the manuscript for “Cow Country.” Moore liked it and provided a blurb. Moore said the author had failed to find an agent and was unable to place the book with a traditional publisher. He eventually published it through the mysterious Cow Eye Press. After Moore passed along a request for an interview, the author, using a Google email address created for his literary alter ego, responded to questions. He was coy when asked whether he was Pynchon, calling the question “irrelevant.”

“Like any contemporary novelist, I am a manufactured construct,” he wrote.

Declining to identify himself, he noted, “I have aspired to make my authorial persona as transparently false as possible.”

It’s not entirely surprising that Pynchon’s name would come up in connection with a wild bit of literary performance art. Conspiracy theories, elaborate cover-ups and paranoia are recurring threads in his work, from his acclaimed early novels, like “The Crying of Lot 49,” to more recent, pulpier books, like “Inherent Vice.” For decades, he has been a literary titan who has managed to remain a cipher, dodging photographers and rarely granting interviews. Little is known about his private life, and he has maintained a silence about his work and influences. In the absence of information, theories like Winslow’s can flourish, with little chance that Pynchon will emerge to refute them. Still, when it came to this latest theory, scholars who have studied his work remained unconvinced.

“The supposed evidence for Pynchon’s authorship doesn’t strike me as at all plausible,” John Krafft, an associate professor of English at Miami University in Ohio, said by email.

Steven Weisenburger, author of “A Gravity’s Rainbow Companion,” said mock online interviews created by the author of “Cow Country” showed a different authorial persona from Pynchon’s. “It didn’t sound like him at all,” he said.

Winslow said he came upon the novel the usual way: He received a copy in the mail to review. He didn’t read it right away, then later glanced at a few pages out of curiosity. The novel, about a hard-up educational administrator who lands a position at Cow Eye Community College and faces the task of uniting its fractious faculty members, seemed zany, intelligent and carefully constructed. It featured wacky names, like Dimwiddle — a Pynchon trademark — and recurring jokes about obscure topics that seemed plucked right out of a Pynchon novel, including riffs on the Esperanto language, vegetarianism and tantric sex.

“I was five pages into it and I thought, My God, this is Pynchon,” he said in an interview. Winslow said he framed his argument as a question, and never set out to prove his point definitively. He did not contact Pynchon’s agent or publisher, and despite their denials, he remains convinced.

“Unless he stood in front of me and said he didn’t write it, short of that, there’s not really a lot to dissuade me,” Winslow said.

The author, meanwhile, insists that he was not trying to imitate Pynchon.

“I was attempting to mimic Doris Lessing,” he wrote, “though it did not come out as planned.” — The New York Times