From Publishers Weekly
This fourth collection from editor and writing guru Lish contains 44 fragmentary pieces that fall uneasily between the categories of short stories and narcissistic confessional essays. Most of the entries revolve around a man by the name of Gordon Lish; even in the stories in which the narrator/protagonist is not named, the tone remains the same. The first-person narration confronts the reader with an aggressive archness as the protagonist unloads personal details that make one squirm: "Why would I want to tell people made-up stories? I can't stand made-up stories. It makes me sick to hear a made-up story." Yet, despite their personal ventings, only a few stories breach the stylistic and emotional barrier with which Lish insulates himself from the reader. "Eats with Ozick and Lentricchia," a stream-of-consciousness tale in which the mournful narrator waits for the real-life writer and critic in a restaurant, has an intimacy and accessibility largely absent elsewhere, but those who read last year's novel, Epigraph, which dealt with the death of the wife of a character named Gordon Lish, will find the subject matter derivative. In general, the helter-skelter prose, the in-your-face vulgarity, the minute-to-minute accounts in which nothing happens and the unvarying tone of confrontation and rage make this a frustrating reading experience. Readers will not wish to indulge Lish as much as he has indulged himself. (Dec.) FYI: Four Walls Eight Windows will simultaneously reissue Extravaganza.
Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Early in this collection, Lish expounds, "How come is it I am always telling people stories and people are always construing my stories to be stories as in stories?...I can't stand made-up stories." An odd statement coming from a notable fiction editor (Knopf for 18 years, Esquire for eight years), but it reveals the mindset behind these ostensibly "real" stories culled from the author's life; a small number of them approach serious subjects (such as his wife's illness), but the majority are ruminations on trivial matters: an ornery blender, old telephone exchanges, a specious recipe for an unnamed meal. All the narratives, however, are delivered in the same restless, rambling manner. Lish chooses to couch the material in analogy and wordplay exercises, and the personal tales wind up rather off-putting, as Lish challenges the reader to find some?any?meaning behind his verbal subterfuge; one wishes he would stop being so self-consciously avant-garde and say what he means. A few decent stories (out of 44) can't save the book from being a marginal purchase.?Marc A. Kloszewski, Indiana Free Lib., Pa..
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
