PF review

Michael Straight · 05 Dec 2007, 19:56 · from 2007-December.txt.gz

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From: mfstraight at gmail.com (Michael Straight)
Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2007 12:56:29 -0700
Subject: (urth) PF review
In-Reply-To: <20071201122621.7E0FCDA820 at mailserver8.hushmail.com>
References: <20071201122621.7E0FCDA820 at mailserver8.hushmail.com>
Message-ID: <d716a1c40712051156u78ace484s7da4176bd991aaae at mail.gmail.com>

Paul, that's a great review.  Thanks for sharing.

And yet one of the commenters at your website offers one of best
perspectives for reading Wolfe that I have yet seen:

"I suppose Wolfe makes of the reader a priest, and puts him on the
receiving end in the confessional, and shows him at its most squirmy
how tough it is to love (and forgive!) thy neighbor, harder far than
loving God and yet its essential corollary. And thus we can safely
assume that Wolfe shares our repugnance while simultaneously putting
it aside in favor of compassion for his character, so essential to a
believable ? let alone a soulful ? portrayal of him?"

Wow.  I don't think there's a book Wolfe has written that is not
illuminated by that idea.

Rostrum

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