Final Fridays : essays, lectures, tributes & other nonfiction, 1995-

9781582437569 (hc)

ix, 313 p. : ill. ; 22 cm

Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-313)

Foreword : To the hyphen, and beyond
I. On reading, writing, and the state of the art
Kafka's fears, etc.
The state of the art
Two more forewords
"In the beginning" : the Big Bang, the anthropic principle, and the Jesus paradox
How it was, maybe : a novelist looks back on life in early-colonial Virginia and Maryland
Further questions
Incremental perturbation
"The parallels!" : Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges
My Faulkner
¿Cien Años de Qúe?
A window at the Pratt
On readings
The end of the word as we've known it
"I've lost my place!"
The place of "place" in fiction
Liberal education: the tragic view
The relevance of irrelevance : writing American
"All trees are oak trees"...: introductions to literature
The inkstained thumb
Future imperfect
I
"In the beginning, once upon a time, it was a dark and stormy night"
The morning after
It can be arranged : a novelist recalls his jazz-drumming youth
The end? On writing no further fiction, probably
II. Tributes and memoria
Introduction to Not-knowing : the essays and interviews of Donald Barthelme
The passion artist (tribute to John Hawkes )
The accidental memoir (homage to Leslie Fiedler)
"As sinuous and tough as ivy" (80th birthday salute to William H. Gass)
The last introduction (memorial tribute to Joseph Heller)
Remembering John Updike
The judge's jokes : souvenir of my father, the after-banquet speaker
Eulogy for Jill

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