William Gaddis - Otac "krize stvarnosti"

Kod nas jedva da itko zna za njega a značajan je poput Pynchona ili Faulknera. I u Americi su ga bili zapostavili no sada ga opet slave.

"It is the reprinting of William Gaddis’ great novels, The Recognitions and JR, that is the best testament to importance of the independent literary press. Both books, languishing in ugly covers and yellowing, battered pages of Penguin paperback editions (remember, it is the well-loved books in the library that have battered pages), maintained a devoted following in the decades since their initial publication but were never given the proper attention or production by their publisher. When published, The Recognitions was famously lambasted by critics in perhaps the most stark case of collective critical malfeasance (documented in Jack Green’s Fire the Bastards!, reprinted by Dalkey Archive alongside the novels), though it has come to be known as one of the great American novels. JR won the National Book Award in 1976.
This month Dalkey Archive Press offers new paperback editions with gorgeous covers and ecstatic introductions by Rick Moody and William H. Gass. These new editions ought to be ordered by every library, save perhaps those of elementary schools (but even then, for the staff!), if only to give a worthy replacement to the well-read older copies already on the shelf. Most introductions can be skipped, but the Moody and Gass introductions are riveting. Their excitement and devotion to the novels is contagious. No lover of fiction can read either without immediately beginning the novel being introduced, no matter the hour of night or the number of books already being read. This is an urgency so often lacking in discussions of books. It is this urgency that led a generation of readers to drop everything and devour every page of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest or kept my friends and I awake every night, school or work be damned, to read Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 (and keeps us awake still, planning our second reading).
Now it is time to return to Gaddis, to return to these masterworks of American fiction, that remain as urgently beautiful and dense and intelligent today as when they were written. Librarians: put these in your collection, put them on displays, thrust them into the hands of the readers who come through your doors. Readers: do not be intimidated, dive in." - Hey, Small Press