DOGGY BAG

A tedious story of academic boredom that shows why postmodernist fiction at its worst deserves its disparaging popular and critical reception. Set in various museums of Europe and the imagination, Sukenick's tale takes modernity to task for its insipid and meaningless attempts at continuing its existence. The first chapter of this postmodern ``Wasteland'' has comic and literary appeal, featuring a continually growing line of wacky tourists having wacky conversations during an interminable wait for Florence's Uffizi Gallery to open. Sukenick, however, never again gets close to the humor and imagination he displays in that scene as the story becomes an extended reflection on how and why literature and culture have become less than nothing to get excited about. The author chooses a set of artsy companions for the journey—Henry James, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, and Federico Fellini—as he announces again and again that the rubble of the culture through which they sifted has become as banal, boring, and tasteless as cold mashed potatoes. The author excuses himself at the end of the book by saying that he writes as he does ``because it's a way of saying [the] whole system is bullshit.'' However true that sentiment may be, the haughty air of superiority with which he looks down on his readers indicates that Sukenick has lost sight of just how limited his own perspective is. The self-referential academic settings and characters are a sign of a once interesting author who needs to get out of the office and the museum once in a while. The rancid leftovers in this Doggy Bag are best left under wraps.