the civil war novel

[erik burns]

bonnie wonders about that civil war novel.  a cupla thoughts. one is that
Gaddis' _ A Frolic Of My Own _ is about a civil war play that gets caught up
in copyright complications.  Perhaps there was some cross-current noise in
the rumor wire and Gaddis was mixed up with TRP.  (Gaddis' latest was also
one of those long-expected/hoped-for works, originally titled "The Last Act"
and a cupla years before it came out many people thought it would never make
it to the page.

The more sinister possibility: it's well known that TRP broke with his
literary agent to take up with a woman who was his literary agent's
assistant who then formed her own literary agency (with the world's
secondbest writer (IMHO) under her belt, so to speak)*. The break-up was
apparently quite bitter.  Rumors I heard on the publishing circuit is that
the civil war book (if indeed that is what it is) was locked up in contract
negotiations with TRP's former agent and _ Vineland _ was published instead.
If this is indeed the case, imagine the horror the horror -- TRP's fourth
novel is locked in a desk somewhere, Vineland is the fifth novel (V) and boy
are we missing out on a lot of good things to talk about.

support for this theory: Vineland is short and lots of people feel it's a
"toss-off" -- I have to agree on vague memories of my first reading, but
would like to give it another go after paying attention to this list for
awhile -- *they* thought that about COL49 too, and they were wrong. Not that
TRP necessarily had to produce a doorstopper after so many years of
"silence," but anyway.

arguments against: how could *they* let that happen? wouldn't there be
samizdat photocopies around? wouldn't there be more buzz? wouldn't the case
be something that surfaced instead of lurking way below the surface?

and: maybe, just maybe, TRP isn't happy with *it* and is still working on
it.  or on something.

there's hope yet

cheers, erik

*names removed to protect the innocent and guilty. available on polite
request (though I assume this is common knowledge here in the rarefied air)