Sean Wilsey, Gotham Book Mart, Ransom Center

[davemarc]

Hi, All--

Just thought I'd share the following. Not sure if any of it's come up
before.

The following appeared back in the July 22, 2005 issue of Entertainment
Weekly, on page 83 in an item called THE BOOK YOU HAVE TO READ.

*

Sean Wilsey, author of the memoir *Oh the Glory of It All*, recommends
Thomas Pynchon's 1963 novel V. (*Perennial, $15*).
____________________________________

When I read it I was on a boat, docked at the 79th Street Boat Basin in New
York City's Riverside Park. Suddenly the characters in the book walked down
to that *exact spot*. I stayed up all night reading, and proceeded to read
everything Pynchon had written. *V.* taught me more about the versatility
and playfulness of language than any other book. It also contains the single
most graphic and hilarious description of a nose job in all of
literature--the comic cosmetic-surgery equivalent of Kafka's description of
an execution machine. Pynchon's the man!

*

In other news: New York City's historic Gotham Book Mart, home of Pynchon
the Cat, was shut down and recently auctioned off to its own landlords after
failing to keep up with lease payments. It looks like a very tawdry--and
unecessarily tawdry--ending to a bookstore with important connections to
many major authors, including Henry Miller.

http://jstheater.blogspot.com/2007/05/goodbye-gotham-book-mart.html


And the June 11, 2007 New Yorker includes a D.T. Max article about the Harry
Ransom Center that, as far as I can see, does not mention any of the Thomas
Pynchon holdings. There's a lot on DeLillo, though, and some interesting
stuff on Joyce, among other authors.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/11/070611fa_fact_max?currentPage=
1

d.