The Mockingbird in the Gum Tree: A Literary Gallimaufry (Essays) - Hardcover

Rubin, Louis Decimus

9780807116807: The Mockingbird in the Gum Tree: A Literary Gallimaufry (Essays)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807116807 ISBN 13: 9780807116807

Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr, 1991

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Veteran teacher, writer, and editor Rubin (The History of Southern Literature, 1985, etc.) offers up a collection of essays on American literature that at their best--which is most of the time--have a refreshing authority and appeal. Least persuasive are Rubin's attempts to find the elusive ingredient (if there is one) that's unique to Southern literature; in his essays on Faulkner, for example, he's eloquent on the genius of the author's achievement in fiction, but less commanding on what makes him ``Southern.'' When Rubin takes up topics for their own sake, however, rather than to support an inherited thesis, he scores one discerning and gratifying success after another. ``The Mockingbird in the Gum Tree'' shows how the vernacular style (after Mark Twain) finally made American literature not merely European- imitative but ``able to say what it thinks.'' Effortlessly blending criticism with his own experiences as a young man, Rubin clarifies the success and the failure of Thomas Wolfe; both sears and honors the once-influential writer and critic Bernard DeVoto; and creates a memoir and evaluation of Robert Penn Warren that one wishes wouldn't come to an end. Without cant, ideology, or high-tech jargon, Rubin takes up the world of American letters and argues wonderfully for the life that's in it--in showing the idealist's despair under H.L. Mencken's crabby surface (``The Mencken Mystery''); in taking Alfred Kazin to task (this side idolatry) for his New York parochialism (``Alfred Kazin's American Procession''); in showing Joseph Epstein how to be fruitfully negative about literary culture instead of just programmatically so ``(Mr. Epstein Doesn't Like It''); and in defending the humane legacy of the New Criticism against the doctrinal ravages of what we now call post- structuralism and deconstructionism (``Tory Formalism, New York Intellectuals, and the New Historical Science of Criticism''). A biographical memoir closes the volume. Its roots in the soil, astute criticism that won't stoop to abandon literature for theory. A book for anyone, say, who seriously wants to become an American writer. -- Copyright �1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

In this collection of critical essays, Rubin--literary critic; professor of English Emeritus, Univ. of North Carolina; and founder of Algonquin Press--traces the development of the American literary voice through such writers as Melville, Faulkner, Twain, and Robert Penn Warren, in addition to commenting on H.L. Mencken, Joseph Epstein, and other notables. Particularly enlightening are his essays on Faulkner and the writers of the Southern Renaissance, where he examines the "love-hate relationship with the Southern community" of which these writers are citizens. It is refreshing to find that Rubin, a supporter of Cleanth Brooks, Warren, and the New Criticism, decries the current theoretical trend toward deconstruction that currently pervades so many college English departments. Highly recommended for all readers seeking a clear and sane voice in American literary criticism.
- Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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