J Lethem

[Tom Stanton]

At 12:43 AM 3/26/97 -0500, davemarc wrote:
>The Spring 1997 Voice Literary Supplement includes a profile of Jonathan
>Lethem by Richard B. Woodward.  Here's Lethem on studying fine arts at
>Bennington alongside Bret Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt, and Jill Eisenstadt:
>
>"I stayed apart from the writing scene.  What people at Bennington thought
>was contemporary didn't seem nearly as interesting as inhabiting the
>10-year time lag I was in.  I wrote covertly as a teenager in the '70s
>while I was reading Pynchon, Mailer, Brautigan, Henry Miller, Barthelme,
>Donleavy, Durrell, Vonnegut.  When I learned that I was supposed to be
>excited by Raymond Carver I wasn't thrilled."

My sentiments exactly. I was never a fan though I was told by more than
a few friends to "get over" the 70s writers. I found the Ellis-MacInerny crowd
far too self-absorbed & the writing technically bankrupt, but then I hadn't
"outgrown" my black humor phase I guess....