NEW WORLD WRITING 17

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 20, 1960

This is the second volume of New World Writing to be published by Lippincott and by and large the contents seem to have more general relevance and interest than previous issues though, of course, the essential special quality of New World Writing remains. There are thirteen selections in all but only four contain poetry and non-fiction. H T K by J. Mitchell Morse is a brief but basically sound article on the obscurity and neurotic tone of modern literature and Ezra Pound: The Guide to Kulchur by Otto Friedrich is an especially fine assessment of the poet as critic and traitor involving some very telling comments on the subsidized artist and the general state of American letters within a political framework. The fiction generally deals with situations which are strange and intensified: the horror of a car crash involving a doctor and his mental patients; a 18 year old delinquent's straining towards ""coolness""; the final crack-up of a young American doctor recovering from a nervous breakdown in Italy; James Purdy's anguished and sadly humorous depiction of one of New York City's lost souls; and there is John Updike's reflections of a literary nature occasioned by a contemplation of the sea. Given the essential tenor of New World Writing this is a varied and interesting collection.

Pub Date: Oct. 20, 1960

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1960

Categories: FICTION