Gilbert Sorrentino

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I was just recently introduced to him via "The Sky Changes" . . . has anyone else read him?

― kelsey (kelstarry), Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:20 (eighteen years ago) link

Yes. I couldn't stand "Mulligan Stew", even though I tried hard to enjoy it and it seemed like it would be my kind of book. "The Orangery" seems OK but I haven't gotten too deeply into it.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:36 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm going back & forth on the sky changes...sometimes the writing lulls me & i can't tell if it's numbing or if i'm a little lost in it.

― kelsey (kelstarry), Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:57 (eighteen years ago) link

(You also might want to try I Love Books.)

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:57 (eighteen years ago) link

I have crystal visions (never read) and I had another one in addition to Mulligan Stew (which I never read). He does get seem to get lumped between the more interesting oulipo types like Harry Mathews and people like John Hawkes who have a bigger reputation, it seems; I'm not sure if it's that he isn't respected (I think he is by those who have read him, and I think he's been the creative writing chair at Stanford forever), but for some reason he never really rose in prominence above a very, very tiny subset of experimental modern novelists.

― kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 24 June 2004 19:04 (eighteen years ago) link

I've never been able to get into him. I don't think I ever liked his poetry, even back when I liked LOTS of poetry.

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 24 June 2004 19:05 (eighteen years ago) link

And I've never finished one of his novels.

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 24 June 2004 19:11 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm attempting to finish the sky changes . . . so weird. such a short book & yet i find myself going through the stages of a long one that is difficult to finish. it's not that the language is daunting...i simply end up getting into it & then losing interest & then reviving the interest for a brief time.

― kelsey (kelstarry), Thursday, 24 June 2004 19:13 (eighteen years ago) link

The problem is that he's one of those postmodern type writers that -- and I'm basing this entirely off Mulligan Stew and peeking into a few other books, I haven't read him that deeply -- that thinks it's enough to be pastiche-y and "clever". Jacques Roubaud is the other writer I've read who gets lumped into this category -- yes, it goes through all the postmodern motions, but is that really enough? It's as if they believe that by following a formula they will create interesting works.

Raymond Federman narrowly escapes this fate (although I once had an argument with Samuel Delany about this, because he felt that Federman was of the same cloth).

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 24 June 2004 20:29 (eighteen years ago) link

(It's entirely possible that I haven't read the best Roubaud.)

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 24 June 2004 20:32 (eighteen years ago) link

"the moon in its flight" is one of my very favorite short stories. it's just... perfect. after reading it i immediately bought a small handful of his books and couldn't find anything a fraction as good. the postmodern "cleverness" turned me off as well.

but, for that single story alone: classic.

actually, i just learned that "the moon in its flight" is finally available in a new collection of his short fiction (the collection is titled the same as the story). i guess i should buy it because my xeroxed copy from an old lit rag is pretty tattered.

― a spectator bird (a spectator bird), Thursday, 24 June 2004 20:43 (eighteen years ago) link

one year passes...

I was a huge fan, but I never could find the rhetorical power to defend him against the naysayers. And now the old troublemaker is gone.

RIP Gilbert Sorrentino.

― Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Monday, 22 May 2006 13:47 (sixteen years ago) link

Maybe one of the things that put people off was his judicious, perhaps excessive use of what Momus calls 'moronic-ironic' scare quotes

― Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Monday, 22 May 2006 13:56 (sixteen years ago) link

nabisco strangely silent on this topic

― Sons Of The Redd Desert (Ken L), Monday, 22 May 2006 14:24 (sixteen years ago) link

one year passes...

I'm almost done with Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things and uh, maybe I picked the wrong one? I'm going to try The Sky Changes, too, but I dunno, too anecdote-y for my tastes, but maybe that's the point.

― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 23 May 2007 21:10 (fifteen years ago) link

fourteen years pass...

I just came across Imaginative Qualities of Real Things on a booklist I was looking at. Thought it looked interesting so I was just thinking of ordering it as an Interlibrary loan. It's not a quick read then?

― Stevolende, Friday, 28 January 2022 13:35 (one year ago) link

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