Understanding William H. Gass

by H.L. Hix

An ambitious novelist made clear and accessible

William H. Gass writes in his essays about "the world within the word" and "the soul inside the sentence," yet readers often find it difficult to get far enough into Gass's words and sentences to find the world or soul they contain. In this guide to the American writer and philosopher's novels, short stories, novellas, and essays, H. L. Hix clarifies the obscurities that have served to limit access to Gass's corpus and explores how the parallels between his fiction and nonfiction illumine their related themes.

Hix offers readings of Gass's works, from the early books, Omensetter's Luck and In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, to his later The Tunnel and Cartesian Sonata. Hix identifies the continuous presence of psychological, metaphysical, and ethical themes, including the lingering effect on adults of childhood hurts, the results of being "trapped" in language, and the consequences of hatred. While agreeing with critics who label Gass's novels and stories metafiction, he contends that to stop the exploration there would be to miss a complete appreciation of the novelist. Hix demonstrates instead how Gass's writings both break and follow tradition―as metafiction belonging to the company of works by John Barth but also as moral fiction belonging in the long American tradition that includes The Scarlet Letter and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Genres: Nonfiction

189 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2002

About the author

H. L. Hix has published an anthology, Wild and Whirling Words: A Poetic Conversation (2004), and eight books of poetry and literary criticism with Etruscan, including Shadows of Houses (2005), Chromatic (2006), God Bless: A Political/Poetic Discourse (2007), Legible Heavens (2008), Incident Light (2009), First Fire, Then Birds (2010), As Easy As Lying: Essays on Poetry (2002), and Lines of Inquiry (2011). He has two more books forthcoming from Etruscan, As Much As, If Not More Than (2013) and I’m Here to Learn to Dream in Your Language (2014).

In addition to having been a finalist for the National Book Award for Chromatic, his awards include the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Peregrine Smith Award, and fellowships from the NEA, the Kansas Arts Commission, and the Missouri Arts Council. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin, taught at Kansas City Art Institute, and was an administrator at The Cleveland Institute of Art, before accepting his current position as professor in the Creative Writing MFA at the University of Wyoming. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin and at Shanghai University.

Reviews

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Неплохой студенческий учебник по Гэссу, простенький, но широкий по охвату (критика там тоже приводится). Думаю, для русской публики его как раз будет достаточно, чтобы сделать какие-то скоропалительные выводы, потому что в глубины Гэсса вряд ли кто-то будет погружаться. А уж как прочтут его, бог весть. Местами даже у Хикса для наших литерати слишком глубоко (например, соображения о том, какой читатель потребен для того, чтобы Гэсса верно понимать, хехе).

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

wow this was pretty boring, mostly because the author tries to be too diplomatic. of course, the sereis editor is matthew bruccoli, one of my former bosses, so I know exactly what this author had to try and fit his study into: an evenly balanced portrait of the author that displays no sign of emotion or passion or judgment. This kind of method only gets you so far, and you can hear Hix hitting his head against the wall of what he's not allowed to say.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very readable survey of William H. Gass’s work, its themes and intricacies. No academic jargon or tiresome theory-flaunting here. It helped me get a little more out of the stories by Gass that I had read and enjoyed. And since I decided against embarking on The Tunnel after being disappointed by half of Cartesian Sonata, I found the chapter on that novel here (framed as “Twenty Questions about The Tunnel”) very useful for understanding the general aims and methods of that novel, without having to read through its hundreds of dismal pages.

The great drawback of this 2002 publication, of course, is that it lacks any coverage of Gass’s subsequent works: Middle C, Gass’s last novel, and Eyes, his final collection of short stories.

[Маx Nestelieiev · Rating 5 out of 5]

so far, the best book on Gass`s works, although without Middle C and Eyes.
especially his 20 questions on The Tunnel - great help for Party of Disappointed Pundits who think that this novel is quite difficult and complicated - fuck nah - it`s rather uneven graphomaniac`s doodle with several interesting ideas.

[Juuso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kiitos gradu ystävyydestä