Vollman on Sayles' Moment in the Sun

[rich]

i think its on the bookforum site, Tom
its not a thoroughly negative review



On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 2:43 PM, Tom Beshear <tbeshear at insightbb.com> wrote:
> Where did you find Vollmann's remarks? I assume it's part of a full review.
> He's getting a reputation (at least to me) for writing some bracingly
> negative (and mixed) reviews. Reviewers are too damn polite, so I'm happy to
> see Wild Bill go his own way, as usual.
>
> Pynchon may do some of the same thing in Against the Day, but it's eased by
> being satirical.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "rich" <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2011 2:23 PM
> Subject: Vollman on Sayles' Moment in the Sun
>
>
> "Sayles is an exemplar of angry compassion. His corresponding defect
> is heavy-handedness, as in his relentlessly parodic imagining of a
> white-power march in Fayetteville, which a Wilmington belle finds “so
> beautiful” at the exact instant that a horse defecates. It’s as if he
> distrusts our ability to keep track of his sympathies. His
> undiscriminating hatred for the ruling class renders its members
> pasteboard characters. Furthermore, he is addicted to preposterously
> coincidental meetings and surprise kin relationships (which impressed
> me in his 1996 movie Lone Star but not here). His story windups
> sometimes emit a sentimental whiff."
>
> can't say that I disagree and in a weird way one could accuse Against
> the Day of same. Vollman for all his faults as a writer at least in
> the Seven Dreams books never goes for that romantic rebel shit.
>
> rich
>