May 16, 2008
The 'Novel or Nothing'; Detecting Japan
Lionel Trilling was at an impasse. "The bare bones of the story are there — and are sound bones," wrote one of the 20th-century's pre-eminent men of letters. Yet, Trilling lamented, after a promising start that had "point, immediacy, warmth under control, drama, and even size," his novel had stalled. Gone was the "unconscious movement of the mind" that, "beguiling and reassuring," had taken him scene to scene in the first third.
Trilling eventually set the work aside, where
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