Jeffrey Severs

Christopher Leise

Thomas Pynchon's longest novel to date, Against the Day (2006), excited diverse and energetic opinions when it appeared on bookstore shelves nine years after the critically acclaimed Mason & Dixon. Its wide-ranging plot covers nearly three decades—from the 1893 World's Fair to the years just after World War I—and follows hundreds of characters within its 1085 pages. The book’s eleven essays by established luminaries and emerging voices in the field of Pynchon criticism, address a significant aspect of the novel's manifold interests. By focusing on three major thematic trajectories (the novel's narrative strategies; its commentary on science, belief, and faith; and its views on politics and economics), the contributors contend that Against the Day is not only a major addition to Pynchon's already impressive body of work, but also a defining moment in the emergence of twenty-first century American literature.

A Corrupted Pilgrim's Guide

Pynchon's Against the Day

Birger Vanwesenbeeck

Crystal Alberts

For many years novelist William Gaddis, despite having won two National Book Critics Circle Awards and a MacArthur Foundation's "genius award," suffered from commercial and critical neglect. However, Gaddis has more recently experienced a resurgence in his popularity among both groups and is now considered one of the strongest American novelists. This collection of essays explores the interrelation between Gaddis's writing and the culture that helped to engender it. The essays cover such topics as technique, genre, religion, art, economics, colonialism and the role played by Gaddis's own travels through Europe and North Africa.

Critical Essays

William Gaddis, "The Last of Something"

"A timely study of contemporary American literature that highlights the everpresence of Puritan myths in American identity and culture"--

The Puritan Myth in Contemporary American Fiction

The Story Upon a Hill

The first book of criticism devoted to Pynschon's massive 2006 novel, Pynchon's Against the Day: A Corrupted Pilgrim's Guide gathers new work by more than a dozen scholars, offering readings informed by the newest developments in narratology, genre studies, ecocriticism, globalism, and the histories of science and religion. This title also offers fresh perspectives on divisive issues within Pynchon studies, such as anarchism, gender, and reviewers' reception of his recent work. What emerges is a novel that will come to be seen, these essays argue, as a major part of Pynchon's storied legacy and a key work of the "late Pynchon."

Christopher Leise

Books

Your next favorite book is out there