Gaddis

[Civ Toby Levy]

I've been biting my tongue til it is about to fall off,
so I guess I'd just better send this message out and take
the flak, if anyone takes offense.

I was already an immense fan of Pynchon when I discovered Gaddis.
At that time he had only published The Recognitions.  I read that
book and just loved the holy heck out of it.  I thought Gaddis was
a genius, and even though I'd read in various places that it was
doubtful that Pynchon read Gaddis before he wrote V., I thought that
spiritually V. was a direct descendant of The Recognitions.  When
JR was published I read it with great expectations.  I felt exactly
like the love of my life had written me a letter telling me to take
a hike.  To my way of thinking, JR was comeplete and utter trash.  A
book I would not have finished reading if it had not been by the 
author of The Recognitions.  The stylistic conceit of 99% dialog was
I thought (and still think) completely wrongheaded.  Could you imagine
a book by Pynchon consisting of 99% dialog???  When Carpenter's Gothic
was published I read it from the library, and it left me cold.  When
I read the advance notices of Gaddis' new one, I again felt a thrill:
would my long lost love return to me?  I reserved it at the library
and as soon as it came in I tore into it.  After 100 pages I returned
it to the library in despair.  What a loss!  I cant stop thinking that
Gaddis is laughing all the way to the bank, thinking he can get away
with publishing this stuff.  And I in no way felt anything like that
about Vineland.  Like Bonnie, I was very grateful for another tale
told by the master.  It was no masterpiece, but it addressed very
important matters and did so eloquently.  I enjoyed Vineland very much.

Toby