doorstoppers

[Michael Bailey]

I also read thomas wolfe's books a long time ago (1970) and enjoyed
them immensely, though like James K, I do not feel a strong urge to
reread them

I'm not necessarily going to say Barth is as great as TRP or Gaddis
but he has a unique virtue all his own and I like his writing an awful
lot.  However I would be lying if I claimed to have read _Letters_
I read that Barth did a lot of his early writing behind speed.  I'm
thinking I might get a legal analogue and sit down with enough relish
to actually finish _Letters_ someday when I've got the time


On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 7:12 AM, James Kyllo <jkyllo at gmail.com> wrote:
> Much as I enjoyed Sot-Weed Factor and Giles Goat-Boy, I've found more
> recent Barth pretty tiresome and have no inclination to try LETTERS.
>
> As for Wolfe, I read Of Time and the River, and The Web and the Rock
> twenty-some years ago.  It was good to get in the flow of the writing
> and take pleasure in the language.  Not sure I'd have the patience
> now.
>
> (and talking of taking pleasure in the language - I've just been
> reading Joyce Cary's first trilogy, and it's fabulous stuff.
> Particularly as used by Gully Jimson in the third "The Horse's Mouth")
>
> J
>
> On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 11:36 AM, Heikki Raudaskoski
> <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi> wrote:
>>
>>
>> A more or less playful doorstopper race seemed to go on for
>> decades:
>>
>> The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) - 756 pages
>> Gravity's Rainbow (1973)   - 760 pages
>> LETTERS (1979)             - 772 pages
>> Mason & Dixon (1997)       - 773 pages
>>
>> If memory serves me right, Barth disses The Recognitions in
>> passing in an essay of his, the ostensible reason being that
>> a novel mustn't be more than 772 pages long...
>>
>> But JB is a lesser writer than WG or TRP. Have any of you
>> read LETTERS from beginning to end? I haven't, and it's
>> unlikely that I ever will.
>>
>>
>> Heikki
>>
>> P.S. Does anyone read Thomas Wolfe's novels these days? Novels
>> like the almost 1000-page-long Of Time and The River. Haven't
>> read anything by him.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> http://www.last.fm/user/Auto_Da_Fe
> http://www.pop.nu/en/show_collection.asp?user=2412
> http://www.librarything.com/profile/Auto_Da_Fe
> http://www.thedetails.co.uk/
>



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