Subject: (urth) obscure Wolfe

From: M. Gallo <mgallo at slonet.org>
Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 16:50:44 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Gene Wolfe sells some of his own works by mail (autographed and
everything), and among them are two I have not heard of: _Letters Home_
and _Bibliomen_, both small press releases.  
	As much as I'd like, I can't really afford to buy every Wolfe title I
come across, and I was wondering if anyone here was familiar with these
two books, what they're about, how they compare wtih his others works,
&c.

Thanks,
M

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From: m.driussi <m.driussi at genie.com>
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 05:42:00 +0000

Reply:  Item #9662929 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00#

M. Gallo,

LETTERS HOME is just that--the letters Gene Wolfe wrote home while he
was in Korea during the Korean War.  Some wags seem to fancy it a
fiction, a novel.  Perhaps too gullibly I accept it at face value as
non-fiction.  As such it is difficult to compare with any of Wolfe's
other work.

BIBLIOMEN (Broken Mirrors Press) is a special collection of short
character sketches, most of which have not appeared anywhere else.
(Thematically: all the characters are looking for books in one way or
another.)  Originally published by Cheap Street, the Broken Mirrors Press
edition has a few more characters added =and= it costs a lot less!
Comparing it to other Wolfe collections: well, it is much shorter
and yet, as I wrote above, the pieces are thematically tied
together--so it is almost like a very short novel.  But it isn't.

I have this problem in reading a collection of Wolfe stories: I tend
to gobble them up, one after another, about as fast as I can; as a
result I get the equivalent of an ice cream headache after five or
six stories.  Point: I did not have this happen when I read BIBLIOMEN
in one sitting (probably another reason why I sense it is "like a
short novel").

=mantis=