Looking for Genet: Literary Essays and Reviews - Softcover

Chester, Alfred

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0876858728 ISBN 13: 9780876858721

Publisher: Black Sparrow Press, 1992

Synopsis

Looking for Genet brings together twenty-five of Chester’s notorious essays and reviews, including pieces on Nabokov’s Pale Fire (“a total wreck, and for one reason: it’s not funny, and it’s supposed to be”), Burroughs’s Naked Lunch (“the first half is pleasantly readable without too much skipping, the second is pleasantly skippable without too much yawning”), and Updike’s Pigeon Feathers (“a god who has allowed a writer to lavish such craft upon these worthless tales is capable of anything”). Here too are sketches from his penniless bohemian life in Paris, seven “Letters from Morocco” written for the New York Herald Tribune, and Chester’s final piece―the half-mad, previously unpublished “Letter from the Wandering Jew,” a howl of rage and despair from his hated final home, Jerusalem. Together these pieces are testament to the life and the talent of the Sixties’ most memorable literary iconoclasts.

About this title

About the Authors

Alfred Chester was, in the words of Gore Vidal, “a glorious writer, tough as nails.” His works include The Exquisite Corpse (Black Sparrow Books, 2004), Head of a Sad Angel (stories, 1990), and Looking for Genet (essays, 1992). Born in Brooklyn in 1928, he died in Tel Aviv in 1971.

Edward Field won an Academy Award for writing narration for the documentary film To Be Alive. His other awards include the Lamont Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, the Prix de Rome from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and the Lambda Literary Award. Field has lived in New York City and has taught at Sarah Lawrence College and Hofstra University.

Reviews

A novelist ( The Exquisite Corpse , LJ 2/15/67) and writer of short fiction ( Behold Goliath , LJ 6/1/64), Chester remains better known for his journalism than his criticism. The editor of this collection has gathered together, in what is obviously a labor of love, Chester's contributions to many publications over the years like the New York Review of Books , Book World , Commentary , the Partisan Review , the Paris Review , and smaller European journals. These essays, book reviews, and columns comment on John Updike, William Burroughs, J.D. Salinger, and a host of other contemporary authors. The collection closes with "Letter from a Wandering Jew," a previously unpublished account of the expatriate author's attempt to find a home in Israel. Chester's mind is original, his reviews irreverent and entertaining. Yet, with the possible exception of the last piece and the Genet essay, these writings are not strong enough to attract many new readers or affect Chester's reputation.
- William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Black Sparrow Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0876858728
• ISBN 13: 9780876858721
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 260
• Editor: Field Edward