It began as the GODFATHER OF MATH, evolved into the GOODFATHER OF MATH. Now this. Go figure...

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The kind of humor I like is the thing that makes me laugh for five seconds and think for ten minutes = G. CARLIN...Stain glass, engraved glass, frosted glass
–give me plain glass = JOHN FOWLES ... Music is the mathematics of the gods=PYTHAGORAS ... Nothing is more fluid than language = R. L. SWIHART
I cannot live without the oxygen of laughter = DAWN POWELL ... !!! ... But laughter cannot survive without the hydrogen of gravitas = PAUL OLIVERIO
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Monday, June 19, 2023

Wobbly, Hazy, But Accurate Praise For UPDIKE ... However

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Image is
fully readable
when enlarged
 
 
John Updike's novel
more than lived up to
the praise from
Time Magazine
+
the upper-case words
from
New York Review of Books

These two press clippings
appear inside the front cover
of the paperback version
I just read

It was first published 
in 1982
 
I can quote 
from the book,
paraphrase the praise
and sound as 
pretentiously literary
as the next best
pretender 
***
 
However, 
the next book 
I started reading after
BECH IS BACK
is a short story anthology
by Margaret Atwood
entitled
 
I've read ten short stories
so far,
loving one and all of them
 
I've read none of
Atwood's many
poetry books
but her poetry 
 came through 
 loud and clear 
  in each of 7 novels 
   I've read by Atwood
+
 
   I've read 25 essays
    published by her  
in 2021 
  and Atwood
has to be considered
—more deservingly than Updike—
as the most prolific,
poignant and
in every way possible
the greatest writer
in the English Language
+
 
Canadian-born
Margaret Atwood is
 
today = 6/19/23 
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 20, 2023 at 4:34 PM

    Maybe TIME Magazine's praise for UPDIKE should have qualified him
    as American-born writer using the English language....

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 20, 2023 at 4:42 PM

    "Brilliant comment" says Oliverio,
    whose praise for Atwood virtually is equal to his praise
    for fellow Canadian author, Robertson Davies

    ReplyDelete

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