Re: damned elusive Pimpernel
Tim O'Connor (tim@roughdraft.org)
Sun, 08 Feb 1998 14:15:08 -0500
> It's possible that behind that devoutly protected fence Salinger has
> been labouring away for the past forty years completing the mother
> of all books. He'd better be. For no other significant writer in
> the history of western literature has carried on in quite this
> manner - & then gone on to produce the goods. Many, of course,
> after an initial brief sunburst, realised there was no more in the
> well & decided their best hope was a prolonged mystification.
The best who comes to mind is Harold Brodkey, who worked on his "novel" for
about 35 years. It was supposed to be the mother of all novels. It was
sad to see it burst forth, because there was no possible way it could have
met the expectations surrounding it.
His two collections of stories are quite fine, though: "First Love and
Other Sorrows" was his debut, and was impressive; "Stories in an Almost
Classical Mode" was stylish and had good moments, though my sense was that
it needed more sturdy editing.
Then there's always Henry Roth, who published "Call it Sleep" in 1934 and
then vanished for about 50 years. And Harper Lee, who published nothing
but "To Kill a Mockingbird" (a book nearly any writer would be happy to
have written, if permitted to write only one novel). Like Salinger, she is
not a public figure, though she lives here in NYC. When her publishers
wanted to issue an anniversary edition, they asked her to write a foreword
to it. She sent them back a note saying that she disliked forewords in
books. The bastards had the temerity to actually reprint that letter as
the foreword! Is it any wonder that people often loathe the publishing
industry?
--tim