A Flag for Sunrise

[Richard Romeo]

Hey all--

As others have mentioned on the list, Stone's A Flag for Sunrise is quite 
brilliant reading--I'm about done with it, and for sheer story-telling 
(albiet a very bleak story), it can't be beat. How sad for our great country 
to make the same mistakes in Central America, less than a decade after 
Vietnam.  (unless one considers post 50s American foreign policy as a part 
of continuum.)

Stone has that rare ability to write very prescient stories that encapsulate 
the mood of the country (60s in Hall of Mirrors, 70s in Dog Soldiers, 80s in 
A Flag). But he writes as it's happening not after the fact, which is the 
mark of many a hack.
Stone's work is close in meter to Dennis Johnson, but Johnson's works are 
not steeped in societies or large histories but in local, human degradation. 
Stars at Noon is a lukewarm attempt, e.g., to write a book like A Flag for 
Sunrise.

P.S.  Anyone else a little worried about DeLillo's increasing popularity?
Rich

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