Sot-Weed

[Michael Bailey]

ah well, I'm a huge fan of Barth but I don't claim to be any kind of arbiter.
- - I'm just not widely enough read to create any kind of credible
rankings, that is...

what I like about him is although there are original elements to his
style - some of which might seem to incline toward flashiness - the
sense of a sure narrative hand is reliably there...

and, although the feeling of reliability opens up a danger of
dullness, there's enough innovation and relatable moments to keep that
from taking over...

very different kind of feeling, reading Barth -- he hasn't refined his
fingernails out of existence the way Pynchon has, eg...