What's the frequency, kid?

October 9, 2015 10:54 PM

A Highly Irregular Children’s Story: David Gates reviews The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine, a children's book by Donald Barthelme. [Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 1976]
posted by Lorin (5 comments total)

I truly love Barthelme but I feel like a lot of the intellectualizing and criticism surrounding his work is absurd. Barthelme is who he is - he could have written much the same work if he were a contemporary of Lewis Carroll, say.
posted by newdaddy at 12:06 AM on October 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

I truly love Barthelme, Karl Ove Knausgård, William T. Vollmann, David Foster Wallace, but I feel like a lot of the intellectualizing and criticism surrounding his work is absurd.
posted by Fizz at 4:43 AM on October 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

This review reminds me of an English literature class I took in college. I was struggling with the analysis papers. Then I started writing ones that were meant to be parodies of what I thought the professor wanted and I started getting A's.
posted by thedward at 7:49 AM on October 10, 2015 [13 favorites]

(The book in question sounds great)
posted by thedward at 8:39 AM on October 10, 2015

To be fair you can't expect him to both pioneer soft rock and be able to write comprehensible prose.
posted by howfar at 10:44 AM on October 10, 2015