Alsen Book
Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu)
Fri, 15 Jan 1999 10:50:57 -0500 (EST)
Regarding my dismissal of Alsen's book on the Glass family--
It's mostly unfair of me to do a whole lot of further dismissing of the
book, and perhaps unfair even to persist in supporting the dismissing I've
already done, because it's five years or so since I read it, and even
then, I probably didn't give it the chance it deserves. As I flip through
it now, it seems promising, even. But I don't recall it being compelling
or even interesting--it was more of a series of pedantic charts and
spurious genealogies that refused to understand the organic changes and
evolutions in the Glass family in terms of the changes and evolutions in
the author than it was a "vision of novel."
The book itself was written in pieces meant to be published separately, as
individual units not requiring recourse to their siblings--but I don't see
in that any felicitous reenactment or reflection of the subject matter.
It reads like the overly-researched work of a graduate student hellbent on
filling both sides of his vita. So the irony in assembling the pieces
into a "book" is maybe the most interesting aspect of the project.
Eberhard Alsen has done other successful and respected books, though, so
maybe it's worth looking into.
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Matt Kozusko mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu