William Gaddis

by Steven Moore

Available on-line at The Gaddis Annotations ::

http://www.williamgaddis.org/mooregad...

Genres: Criticism, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Literature, 20th Century

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Steven Moore is a literary critic. He received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1988.

While Moore has been a teacher, bookstore owner, book reviewer, and columnist, he is most well known for his work as an editor and author of literary criticism. Moore is the foremost authority on William Gaddis, having written a book on this author, supervised the collection of several critical essays, and assisted in the translation of Gaddis' work into Chinese.

The wikipedia entry.

Reviews

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

What we have here is kind of a double feature. Not only do we get one of the foundational works in Gaddis Studies, but we get Steven Moore’s exemplary criticism, Moore as model reader. Reading his two volume study of the history of the novel leaves one at first rather astounded at the mere volume of what he’s read, but more importantly, one notices how good a reader he is. And this study of Gaddis’s five novels demonstrates the closeness and depth of his reading in addition to the breadth found in his big work. And further, he is a model of academic writing, this book having once served as his doctoral dissertation, of clarity.

This 2015 edition of William Gaddis is an expansion of the 1989 Twayne edition, adding chapters on A Frolic of His Own and Agapē Agape. The first and last chapters are updated, and a few things polished up in between, taking advantage of the newly published Gaddis Letters which Moore also edited. One should note too that the first three books published on Gaddis’s works in the 1980’s all bear Moore’s name -- the first edition of this book as well as his A Reader’s Guide to William Gaddis’s “The Recognitions” (now available in a revised and ever expanding web document HERE) and, as co-editor, the pre-Carpenter’s Gothic collection of essays, In Recognition of William Gaddis. In other words, it will be a good day in Gaddis studies when Moore takes second seat to someone else. Joseph Tabbi, whose biography of Gaddis, Nobody Grew but the Business: On the Life and Work of William Gaddis, is forthcoming, may give him a run for the money.

But meanwhile, we have to put up with the fact that whenever Gaddis’s name is mentioned, we are obliged to hear also that of “Franzen” who for some reason earns a front-cover blurb spot on this volume -- “Steven Moore [is] a Gaddis scholar whose criticism is a model of clarity and intelligent advocacy” -- which is true enough, but far too bland to reach blurb status. Better any of the three blurbs on the back-cover -- “In 1982, Steven Moore invented Gaddis Studies when he published his comprehensive guide to The Recognitions” (Stephen J. Burn) ; “Steven Moore is one of our most important Gaddis scholars” (Lee Konstantinou) ; “Where would Gaddis studies be without Steven Moore”? (Brian McHale). In short, not only is Moore important for Gaddis studies, but he is important for all who value the reading, comprehension, and understanding of fiction.

Second anecdote :: Almost with the status of legend, the first academic work on The Recognitions proved to almost within the shadow of no doubt even in the mind of its author who had read no more of Ulysses than its last chapter (for salacious reasons) that The Recognitions was indubitably influenced by Joyce’s Ulysses. Gaddis’s book is certainly one of the first great works after Joyce, but influenced it was not. So, to get some get-back, here’s Evan Dara via an email to Moore in 2014 ::

Asked about Gaddis’s possible influence, Dara told me that while working on The Lost Scrapbook he heard that J R was a novel in dialogue and checked it out from the American Library in Paris: “Took the novel home, plunked it open, tapped it shut--didn’t want the influence”.

Whatever the exigencies and vicissitudes of influence may be, I’m almost certain that Jeff Bursey’s novel Verbatim: A Novel was influenced by Gaddis ; but no matter if it wasn’t because Gaddis readers would benefit from the reading of both Dara’s and Bursey’s novels.

Third anecdote :: Moore’s fifth chapter, “J R: Empedocles on Valhalla”, provides a reasonable argument for why all readers of J R (okay so this is me!) ought to spend the 15 hours required to witness a performance (there exist two on dvd) of Wagner’s Ring tetralogy.

And my blurb? No reader of twentieth century fiction can go without reading Gaddis (take your pick of the first four, his fifth is a bonus) and no reader of Gaddis can go without having Moore’s William Gaddis at hand.




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quick link to my non-review of the 1989 edition ::
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Nathan "N.R." Gaddis]

A new expanded version is now available. Moore intends it to be more an ‘expansion’ than a ‘revision’ ; so the major change is the additional chapters on Frolic and Agape.

Joseph Tabbi’s biography of Gaddis is slated for a May 2015 release :: Nobody Grew but the Business: On the Life and Work of William Gaddis.

SM :: "It was a memorable experience to devour the manuscript of Carpenter’s Gothic in a day while visiting with Gaddis, but it’s a lesser work. Gaddis’s first novel, The Recognitions, was my favorite for a long time, and I’ve reread and written about it more often than his others, but his second novel, J R, is now my favorite, and arguably the best thing he wrote. (It’s also my nomination for THE Great American Novel.) But his last major novel, A Frolic of His Own, is almost as good. I wrote about it recently for a new edition of my 1989 book on Gaddis (to be published in 2015 by Bloomsbury), and I think it may be his greatest rhetorical achievement: it’s the grandest demonstration of everything Gaddis could do with the English language."
http://www.full-stop.net/2014/05/28/i...

The 1989 edition is still free for Internetz over here.



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Audio interview with Steven Moore, discussing Gaddis, can be found (with my apologies for the interviewer guy talking like waaay too much) here: http://www.williamgaddis.org/current&...



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quick link to my review of the 2015 edition ::
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent and free, what more could one ask for?

The pdf can be downloaded from the Gaddis Annotations site, and it well worth setting aside a couple of hours for.

[Маx Nestelieiev · Rating 5 out of 5]

simply the best монографія про Вільяма нашого Ґеддіса: узагальнено все, що про нього відомо, проаналізовано все, що треба+особливо численні алюзії+нарешті нормально розписані сюжети його романів.

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prime material on the fictions of William Gaddis, his enduring themes, his literary thinking, and his importance. Readers of Gaddis would appreciate this new edition; and indeed, readers of usian fiction who aren't Gaddis readers will learn something as Moore's criticism expands backwards and forwards and sideways to bring in other writers to illustrate his points. Also, it's just well-written.

Here is a longer appraisal of J. Tabbi's book and also remarks on Moore's expanded edition:

http://numerocinqmagazine.com/2015/10...

[Jimmy Cline · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's a good reason that Gaddis was vehemently opposed to literary celebrity status and theory-influenced critical interpretations of his work. Moore makes a couple of interesting points, and his one of the more adept Gaddis scholars, but reading his analysis of Gaddis makes my eyes roll at times. If you really like Gaddis' work, don't bother with these books, just enjoy his books.

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Неплохой, но не исчерпывающий комментарий к трем первым романам Гэддиса. Хорошее дополнение к расширению реальности его текстов.

[Tony Tubb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful, concise, whip-smart.

[Peter Friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best American fiction writer ever.

[Jeff Keehr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read 'The Recognitions' for the first time back in 1977. I luxuriated in all of the art references and spent lots of time researching them in the days before the internet. I found the book rich in allusions and funny. (A personal side note: it was one of the characters who persuaded me that a gentleman, something I always aspired to be, always sits when he uses a toilet.) I read JR three years later in 1980. I loved the dialogue and the premise. While in the PhD program at Penn State, I wanted to do a project on Gaddis but the Prof said that there wasn't enough material to work with. I haven't read the later novels but I have 'A Frolic of His Own' and 'Agape Agape' so I will be reading those eventually. One wonderful moment I had in this book was a reminder that what I've been living for, i.e. the appreciation of art, is much more noble than participating in the Capitalist scheme of making money for money's sake. I have had plenty of advice during my life about how I could get rich. And I have no doubt that if I had listened I would be financially comfortable by now. But I am happy to have 1,000 books bouncing around in my mind than dollar signs staring at me out of some empty place that I never wanted to inhabit.

[أحمد الحقيل]

لم أكمله. ليس لأنه لم يعجبني، ولكن لأنه واجهني بفكرة انني يجب أن أتشجع أخيرا وأقرأ للرجل قبل أن أقرأ عنه.
إنه أمر غريب فعلا، ولا يحدث لي كثيرا، أن أقرأ عن كاتب أكثر مما أقرأ له. لم يحدث هذا إلا مع جويس من قبل. لا أحب القراءة عن الكتاب أبدا. ولكن هنالك شيء جذاب في جاديس، عنوان كتاب آخر عن جاديس من تأليف جوزيف تابي يكفي لتقديم تصور، (nobody grew but business). جاديس أمضى حياته محاطا بفكرة الكتابة والحقوق والرواج والتزوير والانتشار، الرجل يبدو وكأنه يؤرخ لأمريكا ولكن من زاوية مختلفة عن تلك التي يؤرخها كتاب الصحافة الجديدة في الستينات، وأمريكا مختلفة عن تلك الرأسمالية الفيروسية التي أرختها إيان راند ومن تبعها. إنه ينظر لها من زاوية مختلفة، زاوية أكثر ثقافية وتركيزا على أزمة "المثقف". ولذا هو رائج بينهم. على الاقل هذا ما تنبئني به كتاباته القليلة التي قرأتها والكتابات الكثيرة عنه.