Finding a Form, by William Gass - Dalkey Archive

[Michel Ryckx]

William H. Gass, Finding a Form, Dalkey Archive: Scholarly Series, 
August 2009. 368 pages.

 From the press announcement:
"Scathing, lyrical, and hilarious by turns, this collection of essays by 
William H. Gass—perhaps our greatest critic and author—sounds a rallying 
cry against the steady encroachment of the banal [...]"

http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/catalog/show/589. Click on excerpt to read 
the well done essai on the Pulitzer. Here's a quote from the Pulitzer 
essai:

"But if the [Pulitzer] award had really been given yearly to the best 
work, worse than repetition would have occurred. /The Sot-Weed Factor/ 
would have acquired a crown in 1961, and /JR/ would have won in ’76, and 
other horrors too dreadful to describe would have happened. The 1974 
jury’s recommendation of /Gravity’s Rainbow/ would not have been 
overruled, for one thing, and Thomas Pynchon would have had the 
opportunity to turn down a Pulitzer."

Michel.