Wood's "common reader"

[David Morris]

>
> *I like postmodernism only when it intends to be serious in its reach.*



> *http://www.goldenhandcuffsreview.com/gh14content/Heppner.pdf*


What constitutes a Joseph McElroy novel? Let’s start by throwing out the
stupid and obvious. It’s not length because McElroy can be succinct and
frequently is. It’s not the supposed thorny and compacted nature of the
sentences because McElroy can be transparent when he wants to be. (From Women
and Men, page 516: “Chick never had as much homework as Gordon.They did not
discuss school. Chick got strapped by his mother once in a while and his
mother gave him orange juice for supper instead of milk.”) It’s not
whatever he might have in common with some of his contemporaries, the
Pynchons and Gaddises, because quite honestly I don’t see it. I see Proust,
I see James, but not Coover or Barth. Don’t let the pub dates fool you: Joseph
McElroy is **not a postmodernist.The seriousness of his mission and his
concern with inner landscapes—memory, suppressed trauma—locate him closer
to the modernist sensibility of Picasso and Schoenberg than the postmodern,
street-beat vibe of Warhol and rock and roll.
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