William H. Gass - In the Heart of the Heart of the Country BOOK REVIEW

[@DemeterTelphousia-Erinyes]

This is what I like about your channel- hearing about authors I’ve not heard of. I’ve read thousands of books ( I’m not young so I’ve had a long time!) so it’s even more of a treat.

[@ryanand154]

Thomas Bernhard is the artist of failure. “The Loser” is his funniest book.

[@WillGraham-uv1ol]

Omg that jump scare after the coffee sip I was 😮

[@duder6387]

I highly recommend “The Tunnel” I read it twice last year and I still can’t get enough.

[@Formandformlessness]

Hell yes. One of my favorite novels.

[@brandontischer5880]

One of my philosophy professors, John Humphrey, was a doctoral student under Gass at WashU in the 80's. Professor Humphrey told me that he had to grade essays for Gass' philosophy of literature course and that Gass would meet with him once a semester to "discuss" how good he was at grading. These discussions would happen at Gass' house with a bottle of cognac. Gass also received a standing ovation from his students on his last day of work before retirement. Gass never talked about his own writing in normal conversation and my professor was not aware of The Tunnel until it finally came out. Matter of fact he was not aware of Gass being a fiction writer until then; he had only read an article of Gass' in an academic publication. My impression from Humphrey was that Gass' course revolved heavily around Gertrude Stein's lectures and texts like Finnegan's Wake.

[@kylenewberry9792]

Yeah narcissists like that like surrounding themselves with a bunch of sycophantic rats that will suck up to them and feed their ego, not surprising to hear at all about this idiot.

[@ryanand154]

I heard that Bill Gass was #metoo by an underage reader of Rilke.

[@lorenzoaguilar2403]

"This guy sharpens sentences like knives". So poetic and, by the way, dark. Thank you Cliff. :)

[@michaelmasiello6752]

Just thought you should know that I started reading this one late last night, thanks to this review. I'm about halfway through. Just jaw-dropping. The Gass I'd read is On Being Blue and Omensetter's Luck. Guess I'll be reading The Tunnel and Middle C too. Thanks for the awesome review--it's not the first time you sent me scurrying to the bookstore, and it won't be the last. Man, "The Pederson Kid"... that's something else.

[@thedoorsbest]

Another one to add to my reading list. Thanks Cliff. Cheers.

[@maryamtshali5892]

Recently read Erasure by Percival Everett, and it felt like a book you would potentially be interested in, especially the esoteric vignettes engaging with philosophy and art. It's been a few weeks since I finished it, and I'm still digesting it ...

[@stepankurecka5027]

You mentioned him almost as much as Gass in this video, I swear to god, I will be so glad if you one day drop J R or The Recognitions video review.

[@besteven]

Annie Proulx took my breath away with the release of 'Close Range' while my ex-wife was already diving delightedly into everything Gass--whom I've inadvertently ignored until this really excellent review, Cliff. ItHotHotC ordered while watching this episode of BTF. Thank you.

[@ryanand154]

Crepuscular is an excellent synonym for the colour blue.

[@alexjohnson9798]

"furious middle class data scientist working from home, not interacting with a single soul, on psych meds" damn Cliff how'd you know?

[@jaredfernandez5849]

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. Been hoping you'd give that book a review.

[@abantorprolaap]

Hi Clifford, thanks for your as usual excellent videos. One request, have you ever reviewed any book by Annie Erneux? I would love to hear your discussion on 'Happening' and/or 'Simple Passion'. If you have already discussed them, sorry. If not, would you please consider reviewing them in your channel? Thank you.

[@Formandformlessness]

Love to see Gass on this channel. He’s truly an under-appreciated writer. His essays are incredible.

[@nancyberry3655]

Ok, so I was pretty busy with This, That, and The Other, but you described Icicles, and I found it, and you were right. I've watched many of your videos, but not all. Have you read/reviewed T Bernhard's Woodcutters? Maybe I got that from you, too! Glad to be here. 😊

[@natezipp6419]

Omensetter’s Luck is another good jumping on point for Gass, kind of in the vein of Faulkner and much shorter than The Tunnel.

[@GromKuba]

I recommend you author from Norway - Tarjei Vesaas, and his best novels The Ice Palace and The Birds. It's one from my favorite writers.

[@Patrick.__]

I recently read those, I loved them, especially The Ice Palace with the imagery.

[@michaelmasiello6752]

The Birds is gorgeous.

[@ryanand154]

I still need to check out books my friend Obed recommends.

[@FlintSL]

I feel there is a Gaddis review imminent, Cliffy. I read JR a while ago--that thing is nuts: information overload, funny, exhausting etc. etc.

[@Linda-bq7eq]

I read a review of On Being Blue by WM Gass some years ago. It piqued my interest and I read it. Damn…I wasn’t ready for it, it struck me with its sophistication and complexity and those were the parts I understood - or I think I understood them - in a mild sort of way. After I finished it ( I didn’t finish it - do you ever finish a book like that? It keeps coming back and hitting you in the head.) I put it in a book donation box at the mall. Now I may have to read it again. Love your work! Thanks.

[@connorlane625]

I don't think my reading has been the same since reading this collection. It totally floored me.

[@Ivxnrxjxs]

Will check out.. Also, do you write? Like fiction or essays?

[@ididgt4259]

This is my favorite short story collection ever, Gass was on another level

[@XVXSwiftHands]

The books finally went back to being better than food. Welcome back clif!

[@marcelhidalgo1076]

Were they ever worse than food?

[@meyersmegafictionalmusings7692]

Great video dude.. I must stress the brilliance of each of his novels. Perhaps attack one of the shorter ones (Middle C he wrote in his eighties) or his first brilliant book ‘Omensetter’s Luck’

[@johnjacob3175]

The church steeple__He made a point of admiring Holderlyn’s fragments, one being an image of a church steeple and such. Hard to not see (enjoy) a correlation, especially if thinking of Holderlyn later, alone, in a turret or apartment, maybe in St Louis…

[@zenape619]

Dude please do an Aleister Crowley review.

[@Gl1tch2263]

It looks like The Tunnel is exceptionally hard/pricy to find right now 😢 seems like there’s a republishing by Dalkey Arcchive next year though

[@aunaun3106]

Waiting youll make a review of “The Blind Owl” by Sadegh Hedayat..

[@ryanand154]

I never thought about how this would go.

[@zsazsavoom]

Any idea (guess) which type of synesthete Gass might have been? My guess would be that he had a smell based form, mebbe smell triggers color...but then I haven't read all his work.

[@ryanand154]

Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree got his hair cut.

[@jiggersotoole7823]

What's with all the cuts ... is there a friggin fire? Byyeee

[@timkjazz]

Gass is a true literary giant, unfortunate he is not more well known.

[@ellelala39]

Do read Barth's The Sot-weed Factor. You will love it.

[@ryanand154]

Out of date nowadays.

[@davidlee6720]

First came across Gas in Best American Short Stories, and though the other writers were good, he was the one I kept going back to and have done so ever since. There is nothing in it like a normal story, just a stream-of-consciousness, almost dream-like, elongated poem that drifts from one strange disconnected sequence to another - all of them strangely moving --all at times that read like the best passages in a first-person novel, others like the surreal scene from a film by Bunuel.

[@ryanand154]

Gass was great at creating ideas about failure and depression.

[@UncleVenomsBooksandWhisk-ip9pl]

Thanks!

[@BetterThanFoodBookReviews]

Thanks very much for your kind support!

[@jackwalter5970]

Gass' writing is life-changing.

[@ryanand154]

That’s what the guy on your cooking shows says about dim sum with cocaine eyes. Gass doesn’t change lives but his writing is instructive to sensitivities around pressure points and mental acuities. My fave professor Upton used to stress these notions before he was forced into retirement by wolves.

[@jamesgwarrior1981]

Read and have The Omensetters. One DFWALLACES recommends or favs. Forget which.

[@nikkivenable73]

Another book I’ve never heard of! I just ordered it! I cannot wait!

[@mtnshelby7059]

The Tunnel is an amazing journey.

[@seldomplayed6279]

Oof. It’s been a while that I hear about a book that I can acknowledge is brilliant, but also that I am not remotely interested in ever reading. With people still writing long blog posts about the self destruction of Aaron Bushnell I do not wanna hear anything about tortured self-destructive people for a very long time. I just can’t. So respect, but I don’t think I’m gonna pick this one up if it makes any sense.

[@BrianHaag]

"perplexing crepuscular prose-poem novella"

[@ryanand154]

Begin with the beguine.

[@marcelhidalgo1076]

Fantastic opening

[@Liisa3139]

I can't stomach gothic lit, but as I just found out my local library has some essays by Gass, I could try those.

[@ryanand154]

Gass’ work is full of hate, but he writes from a love of the art of writing.

[@ryanand154]

You’re reading the Tunnel.

[@drkndlght019]

Greetings and more )

[@BooksYouHaventRead]

I have a special place in the heart of my heart for this book. One always remembers his first NYRB.

[@mjr_schneider]

Fine, have it your way, Clifford, I'm fond of your choice of gloomy Midwestern psychological fever dreams.

[@jesusgonzalez-acton8045]

Others already commented this but I just had to lol- please please do The Tunnel at some point soon. He did something fairly unique there, using the most gorgeous prose (you can see his love for Rilke and Flaubert seep through) to put together incredibly hateful, angry, vile sentences

[@ryanand154]

The Tunnel is not really that interesting. Way out of date at this point.

[@bernardofitzpatrick5403]

Sounds excellent … a must read. Elegant madness … yes! Love Woolf , affinity right there. If Annie Proloux is endorsing, I’m in.

[@ryanand154]

Gass writes as if writers were talking to themselves.

[@jezykjezowski7417]

Speaking of cold, greetings from Iceland. It's tough.

[@thoughts0utloud]

0:29

[@christopherreynolds4446]

Stephen crowder

[@antherthalmhersser7239]

This is like red hulk ligotti or sober alacrity burroughs

[@Ozgipsy]

Mate, drive through the Pilbara or Kimberley if you think dead animals are weird. That’ll disabuse you of it.

[@bookofdust]

I’m intrigued, but I’m only reading female authors this month. I’m going try to comeback to this collection later and also not watch the whole video and go in a bit cold to it all.

[@nikkivenable73]

The only female author I even remotely enjoy is Woolf. Any others you’d recommend?

[@bookofdust]

@@nikkivenable73 Atwood and Winterson, for me, are the greatest living female authors, Alice Munro for short stories, but I don’t think she’s actively writing anymore. Woolf was the first female author I completely fell in love with, and Didion means the world to me, especially in terms of nonfiction. Sontag for philosophical writings. Morrison can not be denied as being one of the greatest writers of the 2nd half of the 20th century regardless of sex.

[@-so4im]

@@nikkivenable73O’Connor!

[@LuisFelipe-zx6uu]

If you still want something shorter before The Tunnel, then read his other linguistic masterpiece "Ommensetter's Luck"

[@ryanand154]

$3Bill is a cool idea for a cryptocurrency.

[@ryanand154]

The Midwestern Dollar.

[@kylenewberry9792]

If you are put off by pretentious nonsense then I would highly avoid watching your own reviews, you would really not like them.

[@huugosorsselsson4122]

I'm able to make sense of them easily. Maybe you're not a native speaker?

[@and_such]

even dummies like me understand him, and I am not a native speaker. he is really down to earth

[@kylenewberry9792]

I am a native speaker, I just think he has unfortunately disappeared up his own ass over the years. Maybe the only guy who ever got less humble and more up his own ass after LEAVING Los Angeles, and not vice versa.