Harold Brodkey

Edmund White's new memoir City Boy has some amusing dish: Brodkey's denial about his sexuality, his efforts to promote himself with Harold Bloom, Sontag, et al.

https://brickmag.com/harold-brodkey-yesterdays-genius/

A friend and I were quoting the worst of Brodkey's, screaming with laughter.

Great piece.

Brick is good overall, eh? Anybody here used that Submittables service?

Will follow Scott's advice on getting the collected stories, but also the novel looks like a suitable case for treatment, since I sometimes find myself editing my reading anyway.

Reading this New York magazine profile from 1988, just for a taste of when the combination of short stories and anticipation could make a sensation.

He is at once grandiose ("It's dangerous to be as good a writer as I") and humble ("Look, I can understand if you don't like my work and don't want to write about me").

(Cover story is a few pages up from where the link leads.)

One more thing: listening now to this sparring with Michael Silverblatt in this 1991 Bookworm interview. Less interested today in Brodkey's actual writing than who he was during this era of publishing.