Gore Vidal

[Jeffrey Meikle]

Vidal's rant, which indeed prefigures the Slate review, is "American
Plastic:  The Matter of Fiction," _New York Review of Books_, July 15,
1976, pp. 31-39.  I think it's been included in an anthology of Vidal's
critical writing as well.  In addition to TRP, he also slashes D.
Barthelme, Gass, and Barth.  TRP comes in for praise as at least a mensch,
if not a convincing writer, for not selling out by joining the English
department R&D labs to teach creative writing.  While still no further than
the first sentence of M&D, with my copy forlornly sitting on my desk amidst
stacks of term papers and various bureaucratic reports, and fully expecting
M&D to be a masterpiece worthy of the author of GR, I too enjoyed the Slate
review.

Cheers,
Jeff