Jennifer Egan on TRP and the Nobel Prize

[Matthew Cissell]

Faint praise indeed for Egan. but true, no need to bash.

As for the unawarded... Joyce, Borges, Nabakov (etc.) is not a bad group to be in with.

Why is that everyone wants a Swan Song? Some romantic inclination perhaps? Joyce was apparently planning something much 'lighter' after the Wake was finished. Does this make a writer any less of a writer? Must their last gasp coincide with the final word of the opus maestro? 

----- Original Message -----
From: Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com>
To: Heikki Raudaskoski <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi>
Cc: pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 6, 2011 11:01 PM
Subject: Re: Jennifer Egan on TRP and the Nobel Prize

no need to bash Egan. Goon Squad is perfectly acceptable mainstream
fiction and loads better than the typical bestseller.

I have to agree that IV, amusing as it might be, is not a career capper for TRP.

DeLillo may be doing the same thing, noodling around at the tail of
his career far away from the (many) peaks of his work up until Mao II
or thereabouts.

My person opinion? They didn't give a Nobel to Gaddis. That shows you
what the prize is worth. TRP doesn't need a Nobel: he has Gravity's
Rainbow with his name on it. And Mason & Dixon. A-and V. And The
Crying of Lot 49.







On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 8:12 PM, Heikki Raudaskoski
<hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi> wrote:
>
>
> I guess I should provide some context. The interviewer writes
> that according to Egan, it would be a huge surprise if an
> American writer won the prize. Then he quotes her, starting with
> the TRP bit I translated. She continues: "My favorite is Philip
> Roth who has maintained a high standard. A wild card might be
> Don DeLillo."
>
> FWIW, according to LA Times, Egan "is not shy about looking to
> such writers as Marcel Proust and [presumably earlier] Thomas
> Pynchon and John Updike and Philip Roth as inspiration."
> http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/29/entertainment/la-et-jennifer-egan-20110429/2
>
>
> Heikki
>
> On Thu, 6 Oct 2011, rich wrote:
>
>> gore vidal? hated pynchon and let folks know it but surely a writer
>> one would want to read
>> Egan's last book is very much in the DeLillo-Great Jones Street family
>> than Pynchon
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 9:30 AM, Otto <ottosell at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> > I will never read Jennifer Egan.
>> >
>> > 2011/10/6 rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>:
>> >> one can agree about the IV sentiment; i'm still hoping Pynchon will
>> >> wind up his career in some fantastic way to wash away the rotten
>> >> blabber of the last two books
>> >>
>> >> rich
>> >>
>> >> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 8:29 AM, Heikki Raudaskoski
>> >> <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> "I think Thomas Pynchon is out of the game. He hit rock bottom with
>> >>> Inherent Vice that came out a couple of years ago. Even Elmore Leonard
>> >>> at his worst outdoes it."
>> >>>
>> >>> Jennifer Egan as interviewed by Helsingin Sanomat, the leading Finnish
>> >>> newspaper. October 6, 2011. Translation mine.
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> Heikki
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >
>>
>