Underdogs

[saliotthomas]

Some authors just have no luck.
While Philip Roth or very recently(and slowly subsiding)Cormac Mccarthy or Richard Yates are mention everywhere and their elegies sang by all some worthy writers seems to be doomed to oblivion.
Huberts Selby,Jim Harrisson or just brought back to mind yesterday by signal20 Thomas Mcguane(sporting club was very good).
It was a bit the case of Le Cleziot in France before the Nobel,in nice-guy-drawer but considered heavy weight.

So say their names and say it loud for surely you have your own forgotten ones.

 

[LinRobinson]

Good post.

I'd add Thomas Berger, whose Little Big Man is certainly up there on the Great American Novel list, but is otherwise ignored.

And Don Robertson, whose Paradise Falls might indeed BE the GAN, but is lamentably undiscussed.

 

[saliotthomas]

I did a quick search for i knew nothing of them and they both seems interesting.
Thomas Berger Meeting evil sound promising.
I keep them in mind and see if i can get hold of one of there work,thanks.

 

[cirque]

This is a great thread idea ST. Its an easy one for me, since I have come back to literature after a 3 decades of AWOLness...

I have noticed the following formerly respected (at least academically) authors whose books are no longer as available nor names rarely come up in discussion:

Stanley Elkin-- The Living End, The Franchiser, Dick Gibson Show etc..

W.H. Gass--- Early WH Gass was INCREDIBLE literature: Omensetters Luck , The Heart of the Heart of the Country etc..

Katherine Ann Porter-- Totally left the map (Ship of Fools etc..)

I.B. Singer-- (Nobel Prize winner) was formerly WIDELY read and respected by recognized word lit heavy weights..

John Hawkes -- Tho some still recognize him as a hugely influential writer's writer... The Lime Twig, Beetle Leg, Blood Oranges etc etc.

Bernard Malamud-- way more formerly read and taught The Fixer, The Magic Barrel

The others I am saving for some surprise reviews on another forum

 

[saliotthomas]

I.B. Singer-- (Nobel Prize winner) was formerly WIDELY read and respected by recognized word lit heavy weights..

Indeed,I bought 3 of his and want to read The slave very soon but i see very little coming about him.

 

[cirque]

Indeed,I bought 3 of his and want to read The slave very soon but i see very little coming about him.

I remembered In My Fathers Court and Crown of Feathers as being really good reads (but again, that was A LONG time ago...)