Barth, Pynchon, heirs etc.

[John Carvill]

Agree with earlier poster that it's hard if not impossible to conceive
of an 'heir' to Pynchon. A writer who can produce two books as
startlingly brilliant, yet different, as GR and M&D, is surley unique.

At risk of attack, can I just say that when I finally got round to
trying Barth - a quite weather-beaten copy of 'The End of the Road' - I
got about half way through and gave up. This was a while ago, but from
what I remember the book started well then got bogged down and, while I
couldn't say I was 'bored' by it, I found it insufficiently compelling
to prevent me from putting it away in favour of something else from the
ever-expanding 'pending' list.

Yet Barth is very often mentioned in  the same breath as Pynchon.  What
am I missing?









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