[lbo-talk] Modern American radicall fiction

[Jim Straub]

Agreed.  The only american novel of this century that can really stand
up to Beloved is, in my opinion, Blood Meridian.  I don't put any
Pynchon book against it because while I think he's the overall better
novelist, his central work--- Gravity's Rainbow--- is genuinely fairly
impenetrable, and will get more so as the sixties fade from view.

But I saw Toni Morrison speak, and let me say, her comments on
political subjects were... the opposite of inspiring.  Huge
dissapointment.  Ah well.  I love that she did Oprah so much, though.


>
> I have the opposite reaction - Walker's "Meridian" is a fine text, but her
> later stuff is less interesting. But Morrison's "Bluest Eye" and "Beloved"
> rank among the greatest texts of the 20th century.
>