I found American Fictions 1940-1980 to be a browsers delight. Frederick R. Karl seemingly has read everything written during those 49 years. Even minor writers like James Purdy get a detailed treatment. There’s plenty of attention given to John Cheever, John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, and dozens of other writers from that era in the 637 double-columned pages of this book. Frederick Karl also evaluates writers. He’s not too keen on Saul Bellow. But he’s really impressed with William Gaddis and Joseph McElroy–two notoriously difficult writers. If you have any interest in the fiction published during the Post-WWII years, this volume is a gold mine. My only quibble is that Karl missed the importance of Philip K. Dick–no mention of him in this book. After Karl died in 2004, his estate published a sequel, American Fictions 1980-2000 which I haven’t read yet. I bought this volume online for a pittance. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FORWARD
A POLEMICAL INTRODUCTION : WHO WE ARE
Chapter One: THEMES AND COUNTER THEMES
Chapter Two: AMERICAN SPACE AND SPATIALITY
Chapter Three: THE WAR AND THE NOVEL–BEFORE AND AFTER
Chapter Five: GROWING UP IN AMERICA: THE 1940S AND THEREAFTER
Chapter Six: THE COUNTERFEIT DECADE
Chapter Seven: THE POLITICAL NOVEL: 1950S AND AFTER
Chapter Eight: THE 1960s: THE (WO)MAN WHO CRIED I AM
Chapter Nine: THE POSSIBILITIES OF MINIMALISM
Chapter Ten: THE FEMALE EXPERIENCE
Chapter Eleven: 1970S: WHERE WE ARE
Chapter Twelve: THE NONFICTION NOVEL
Chapter Thirteen: WHO WE ARE AND WHERE WE ARE GOING
NOTES
INDEX
George, thanks for bringing this work to my notice. Just the 40-year period and the possibilities that existed at the time makes me want to read this book.
Prashant, Frederick Karl focuses on mostly American literature, but some world famous writers like Borges get some attention. AMERICAN FICTIONS is a wonderful book to have on your Reference shelf.
These books are always fun, aren’t they? I may have to buy it.
Patti, you should be able to find inexpensive copies of AMERICAN FICTIONS online. Well worth a few bucks!
But I could read six or seven Gold Medals in the time it would take to read this.
Bill, I confess I read AMERICAN FICTIONS straight through. But most people would use it as a reference book. I’m having the same “Gold Medal” feeling while I’m reading Donna Tartt’s THE GOLDFINCH. My review will be up tomorrow.
I guess Karl has been doing this for a long time. My non fiction database shows I read his A READER’S GUIDE TO THE CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH NOVEL in 1975.
I guess that should read “was doing” as he’s dead, right? This one was first published in 1983. My library system has a copy.
Yes, Jeff, poor Frederick Karl has departed to that Library in the sky. But he was a prolific writer. My public library system has a half dozen of his books.
Are you positive Frederick R. Karl isn’t a pseudonym for a group of readers / essayists who cease these books? No one person could have read every one of those books, and all of the ones in the following volume plus what’s in the other things by “Frederick R. Karl”.
Rick, I suspect Frederick Karl was a reading addict…like some of us….
I guess one of the sure signs that you have too many books is when you know you have the book but can’t locate it in your collection. I bought and read this book back in the 1980’s. I managed to find Karl’s big biography of Joseph Conrad in my stacks but not AMERICAN FICTIONS. Fortunately copies are available from third sellers on amazon.com for prices as low as a penny plus postage. So soon I will have two copies, one of which remains buried somewhere in my house. But that’s ok, when I eventually stumble across it I’ll reread it again.