*** This is a new, never read book. It has a few blemishes such as a crease or edge-wear on the cover, remainder mark, but it is still crisp and new on the inside and it makes for a great reading copy. ***
This compilation of essays and reviews, gathered posthumously from the New York Times Book Review and other publications, solidifies John Gardners legacy as a consummate teacher and controversial critic with a provocative sense of humor. Writing about his fellow craftsmen, John Gardner offers piercing insights into those whose works he admired and those whose works he didnt. In exacting unapologetic evaluations upon such writers as Saul Bellow, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, John Cheever, Larry Woiwode, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Updike, Gardner separates genuine fiction from fakery, careful not to spare his own writings in the process, and in doing so, he displays his influences and wide-reaching observations of the literary life.
Refreshingly unpredictable and self-aware, this collection lays bare the core qualities of lasting fiction and is essential reading for anyone interested in American literature.
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Counterpoint; Reprint edition (April 7, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1582434948
ISBN-13: 978-1582434940
