Faulkner and Hemingway: Biography of a Literary Rivalry by Joseph Fruscione (review)
bode well for our common future. It is a future, in fact, that Pynchon has "actually"—"indicatively"—written into existence. For, stresses Cowart in the conclusion, the genealogist is also a visionary. What is more, the vision is shared by the Pynchonians following in his footsteps, many of whom are important authors already. This is a vision as striking as it is indirect. A "postmodern Henry James," Pynchon abhors didacticism, exceling instead in literary "indirection" (169). Parsing this opulent obliqueness with remarkable patience and insight, Cowart's book sheds clarifying light on Pynchon's darkest passages.