Jacques,
No, I never had the pleasure of meeting Algren. Certainly
wish I had. His big four novels, and many of the stories in
NEON WILDERNESS---cut to the bone for me, and could be called
life-changing. (Even if, in reality, he wrote two version of
the same story in those books.)
After the start of his long affair with Simone de Beauvoir,
he seems to have changed and somewhat lost his way.
I enjoyed Paul Bowles writing, but there was something too
detached, too decadent, too lush about his work, as if I were
wallowing in soft flesh, and yet something sadistic
too.
A minor aside: My take on Algren is that he belonged to to
that type of writer who has a "home region, a microcosm,"
from which all his inspiration and imagination comes, as did
Faulkner and many of the Southern Writers, while Conrad and
Hemingway had no true home region and therefor wrote about
the macrocosm. Both, of course, are searching for universals
in their suject matter.
Just an observation that relates to my own writing. I never
had a true home region myself, and therefore had to write
about the universe in general.
Best,
Dennis etc,
Original Message ----- rom: "Jacques Debierue" <
matrxtech@yahoo.com> To: <
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Friday, May 06,
2005 12:29 PM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Conrad, Hemingway and
Faulkner (was: Dan Fortune series)
> Dennis, did you know Nelson Algren? I'm very
interested in his work.
Sadly, he seems
> forgotten. I've been reading Paul Bowles lately...
another guy who knew
what he was
> doing.
>
> Best,
>
> MrT
>
>
>
>
>
> RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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