William Gaddis’ The Recognitions
The introduction to the Dalkey Archive edition of The Recognitions, William Gaddis’ first, longest, and most difficult novel, references a moment when the self-effacing author drew a picture of himself for a collection of essays. Appropriately, he left out the head. In a century that would have no shortage of “invisible novelists” Gaddis was not only … Continue reading
All you need to read Ulysses…
I am a few days late for the June 16 celebration of Bloomsday, the date when James Joyce’s Ulysses takes place, but a piece in the Economist’s Prospero blog was too entertaining to pass up. In the post, a friend of the author argues there are two kinds of readers–those who have read Ulysses and those who haven’t. I would disagree. … Continue reading
Thank God Joyce Wasn’t In Charge of Things
…because then we would have to hate him. James Joyce was a brilliant mind, but could you imagine voting for the man? It is a silly question, really. Writers do not tend to make good administrators in the first place. Their interior worlds swallow most of their time, leaving little patience for the actual living. … Continue reading
What Novels Make You Feel Uneasy on the First Page?
On page 126 of If on a winter’s night a traveler a character obsessed with reading everything she can get her hands on makes this statement: The novels I prefer are those that make you feel uneasy from the very first page. What kind of novels are those? I have to say that the experience … Continue reading
Love, Misery, and the Stars in the Sky
If on a winter’s night a traveler is taking shape much like Calvino’s Invisible Cities, itself a riff on Scheherazade and the 1001 Nights. In all of these books there is a frame story that carries along through a series of vignettes. In traveler, the frame story is that “You” the reader have begun one book only … Continue reading
Letters Republic 