Unrecognizable: William Gaddis’s American Pessimism

thepointmag.com

25 pointslermontov4 comments

The Recognitions (William Gaddis)was one of the assigned readings in my honors English 1A class at UCLA in 1957; another was Generation of Vipers (Philip Wyle). We read three or four other books but I only remember Gaddis and Wyle. The class, taught by an enthusiastic graduate student, was lively, intellectually stimulating, and formative.

JR, by far the best book of the century

For someone unfamiliar, what makes you say that?

First read the article, giving a good overview of JR.

It's the only work without author. Only the characters are speaking, no influence and manipulation at all by the author. Dialog only, similar to a script for the screen, but without any script hints.

Everything happens in your head, you need to be in a flow to catch on. You cannot just put the book away for a while and continue then.

And the content is also revolutionary. The kid who exploits wall street and tricks the shenanigans of the business world, is lot of fun. Much more fun than his first, which is more Pynchon alike, very boring.

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