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HATCHET JOBS (Hardcover)

by Peck Dale (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product details

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: THE NEW PRESS (2 Jan 2004)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1565848748
ISBN-13: 978-1565848740
Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 14.2 x 2 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 615,142 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

Shatteringly honest, disturbing, and provocative.

Synopsis

Novelist Dale Peck attacks the contemporary canon of fiction, whether it be Ricky Moody, Julian Barnes or David Foster Wallace, for writing bad prose without content. In one savage review after another, Peck contends that current contemporary fiction is heir to a bankrupt lineage that began with James Joyce, was continued by Faulkner, Nabokov, and led to the current bad state of fiction. Hatchet Jobs methodically eviscerates contemporary fiction - author by author. Dale Peck turns a harsh gaze against the publishing climate that fosters this mediocre work and the critical establishment that rewards it. Rife with fine textual analysis, important historical context, and startling insights about the power of fiction, Hatchet Jobs hacks away literature's deadwood in the hopes of discovering the vital heart of the contemporary novel. Here's a sample of Peck's hatchet jobs, from his controversial review in New Republic of Rick Moody (whom Peck called "the worst writer his generation"): All I'm suggesting is that these writers (and their editors) see themselves as the heirs to a bankrupt tradition.

A tradition that began with the diarrheic flow of words that is Ulysses; continued on through the incomprehensible ramblings of late Faulkner and the sterlle inventions of Nabokov; and then burst into full, foul life in the ridiculous dithering of Barth and Hawkes and Gaddis, and the reductive cardboard constructions of Barthelme, and the word-by-word wasting of a talent as formidable as Pynchon's; and finally broke apart like a cracked sidewalk beneath the weight of the stupid -- just plain stupid -- tomes of DeLillo. A daring book for Dale Peck in the tradition of You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The pot calling the kettle..., 5 Sep 2004

By	DM Webster "arakis2002" (Norfolk) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

As Peck's ego has grown, his writing has become increasingly obscure. His early books 'Fucking Martin' and 'Now it's time to say goodbye' were superb explorations of the methods of writing novels, but 'What We Lost' with the author appearing mid 'memoir' was an exercise in self promotion. So it is with this collection of essays. This is not to say that they are badly written- they are not. Peck has an excellent exploratory style and his knowledge of contemporary fiction is excellent but reading this book, I felt that sometimes he was being unnecessarily agressive particularly when refering to authors' sentence structures (as his are often convoluted and lose their meaning half way through). If you are expecting an amusing bitchy read where Peck scathingly rips apart a variety of books, you'll be disappointed, Peck is too intellectual for that. Where this book shines, and unfortunately you have to wait until the final essay to find this out, is Peck's condemnation of contemporary experimental fiction. He suggests that a lot of contempory 'classics' by Joyce, Pynchon, Nabokov and DeLillo to name a few are being experimental for experimental's sake, losing the plot and characterisation in the process. The fact that the literary establishment reifies these novelists has secured their place in the literary canon. For this reason, Peck refuses to offer alternatives to their style of writing, suggesting that to offer an objective critique is to legitimize their content. He condemns Joyce's Ulysses but refuses to say how it could improved or even go into detail as to what is wrong with it. By taking a cultural historical approach Peck legitimises a superficial reading of these texts but it never fully convinces the reader because his exploration of the text is little more than what could be discovered in the cheat notes for any of these books. Having said this, I did agree with his assertion that a lot of contemporary literature is unreadable but he needs to be careful that he doesn't end up going the same way.

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