Tags Archives

American

Becoming Completely Yourself | Elmer on Mother Night

By Dan Pyle in Literature on

Jonathan Elmer   Howard W. Campbell Jr. is a playwright and a spy. What is the relation between the two? At the level of narrative, the relation is as intimate as can be. When Frank Wirtanen approaches Campbell about spying for the Americans, he indicates that he fixed on Campbell because of the “medieval romances” he writes: “you love pure …

Read More

Angry Sordid Present | Elmer on Player Piano

By Dan Pyle in Literature on

Jonathan Elmer   An insurrection erupts, and is crushed. We are in the years following World War III, and the United States has emerged victorious again. Player Piano is set, more or less, in our present time (Vonnegut tells us that “the characters are modeled after persons as yet unborn, or, perhaps, at this writing”—1952—“infants”). Of course, there has not yet …

Read More