Talk:The Runaway Soul

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The tone of this entry is weirdly hostile and disparaging throughout; its author seems intent on belittling every aspect of the subject, and makes bizarre comments. Of course “no novel was forthcoming” during the period between its sale to its original publisher and its eventual publication. Assertions such as “Many now believe the the novel cycle was, if not an exaggeration, then an outright hoax” seems slightly unhinged. (Shouldn’t that be “if not an outright hoax, then an exaggeration”?)

The truth is that Brodkey worked on this novel for years, before publishing it (in an apparently shorter version than what he first wrote; numerous outtakes of it had appeared in magazines but were not included in the final book) under the title The Runaway Soul. There are several well-documented accounts of editors seeing the manuscript during the long years of its composition, so the insinuations (here, and in the entry on “Harold Brodkey” that the thing never existed seem pretty strange.

This should be entirely rewritten. Is someone willing to do it, or shall I have to? Gregory Feeley (talk) 22:07, 29 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I rewrote the entry, and a notice popped up saying that it lacked references. I then added some references. How does one make the notice go away? Gregory Feeley (talk) 13:45, 30 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Novel Longest in Progress[edit]

In 1981, Robert Hendrickson awarded the "Novel Longest in Progress" prize to A Party of Animals:

The prize in contemporary letters apparently belongs to Harold Brodkey's A Party of Animals, which has been described as a long Proustian novel. This, Brodkey's first novel was contracted for in 1960 and still wasn't finished eighteen years later when Farrar, Straus & Giroux decided it couldn't wait any longer. So Mr. Brodkey went over to Alfred A. Knopf. According to the original publisher, "The book has been completed in one Websterian sense," but the author would "change his mind ... cut one chapter out ... add three or four more" and the novel "became sort of a life in progress." At Knopf no one will say when A Party of Animals will be published.

From: Hendrickson, Robert (1981). The Literary Life and Other Curiosities. New York: The Viking Press. pp. 23–24. ISBN 0670430293. -- noosph e re 20:33, 4 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]