I’m very impressed with Richard Powers’ The Time of Our Singing. He is concerned with virtue in wholly unanticipated ways. Whereas, I want to beat the hell out of Tom Wolfe’s cartoonish depiction of humanity in I Am Charlotte Simmons. I’ll have more to say on the latter, probably at January. But for the moment, I ask what’s worse? Deluding yourself into Balazc/Zola realism or coming to terms with your own intellectual limitations and taking a few risks. For my money, Richard Powers kicks Tom Wolfe’s ass any day of the week.
[UPDATE: Chance Morrison is also participating. Woo!]
Completely off topic, but I want to say here that Gwenda’s blog won’t let me comment anonymously. Or rather, it’s Blogger that won’t let me, because the Blogger site hangs when I click that link. Dang Blogger.
I am following your drunken odyssey with amusement. Just wanted to chip in to say how much I LOVED “The Time of Our Singing”–I think it’s my favorite new novel of the past couple years, I’ve recommended it to a million people.