Donald Antrim

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seeing as we're talking about books again, i wondered if anyone here has read any Antrim, and what people think (i don't think anyone has mentioned him previously so...)

i love The Vericationist, and also The Hundred Brothers (which is a little more obvious but still great). haven't read Elect Mr Robinson for a Better World yet though. so, is Antrim one of the most underrated and interesting American writers of the last 10 years, overshadowed by the more hyperbolic likes of DFW?

― gareth, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I picked up the EMRFABW a while ago, but only got about half-way through before putting it aside. It seemed a bit too derivative of Barthelme for my tastes (grate artists = terrible influences type scenario). Maybe I should give it another go.

― stevie t, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

not sure but thought Elect... wasn't as good as the following 2 (although not read yet, so can't be sure). have never read barthelme, will investigate. hmm, i think this thread is going to be about as popular as my russian lit post-1991 thread.

― gareth, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You Do It To Yourself, man.

― Josh, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Verificationist and The Hundred Brothers go on the top shelf. . . Elect. . . not so much. Antrim's a real favorite of mine: the Barthelme lineage, while certainly a presence, is replaced in those latter two novels with a very particular approach that's very uniquely Antrim. If nothing else, he's introduced a technique of expanding time that I don't recall ever having seen employed effectively: The Verificationist occupies a space of perhaps two hours, and The Hundred Brothers perhaps three, and in the best possible manner.

Interesting convergence: Antrim, Jeff Eugenides, and Rick Moody were all in the Brown writing program at the same time. . .

― Nitsuh, Monday, 23 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

nitsuh/stevie t: where is a good place to start with Barthelme?

actually i've just noticed that Nitsuh and Stevie T are both saying that the influence of Barthelme is only really there in the (presumably) inferior first book, the one that i haven't read, oh well.

― gareth, Tuesday, 24 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Gareth: I'm not sure how much Barthelme is still in print over here. But I guess you can always order from amazon US or {insert your preferred non-fascistic independent online bookshop here}. The best place to start is 60 stories and 40 stories - both really good anthologies from his many collections. There are a few novels: Snow White, The Dead Father (if anyone has a spare copy of this, please send it to me, cos it seems un-gettable), The King... These are a bit patchier. There are a couple of posthumous collections - The Teachings of Don B, which rounds up his more parodic/sketchy New Yorker humour, and has a good intro from Pynchon, and Not-Knowing which is criticism and interviews and things. He wrote a great children's book called The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine or The Hithering Dithering Djinn which I would also sell close family members to own.

― stevie t, Tuesday, 24 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two months pass...

i'm reading Barthelme's 40 stories now, and i'm not really enjoying it that much. its ok, but i can't really get into it. i don't see the Antrim comparison (but then i haven't read the antrim book you were comparing it to). i'm not that much of a short story person, and this is reminding me, in a way, of a Calvino short story collection which i didn't enjoy that much

― gareth, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

five months pass...

Just read The Verificationist. Really, really good. The time- stretching is great, and completely different to Nicholson Baker's. It's also nice to read a book that you can get through in one sitting, I find.

I've read very little Barthelme, but I remember "Rebecca" and the one about the balloon being brilliant.

― toby, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

on the subject of Barthelme, is amazon just being crap or are neither of 40/60 stories in print in the UK? if so, is there an obvious bookshop to get them from in london, or should i just order them from amazon.com?

― toby, Monday, 4 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

when is there going to be a new antrim book?

toby did you ever get the 40/60 stories book, you can have mine of you like?

― gareth (gareth), Sunday, 27 July 2003 12:26 (twenty-two years ago)

and if toby has it, can i borrow it sometime gareth?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 27 July 2003 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

the barthelme? if toby has it already you can have it

― gareth (gareth), Sunday, 27 July 2003 12:49 (twenty-two years ago)

yes i have both 40 & 60 stories and a few others. "rebecca" and "the balloon" are two of my favourite stories ever, some of the others are good too.

― toby (tsg20), Sunday, 27 July 2003 13:36 (twenty-two years ago)

when is there going to be a new antrim book?

i shamelessly asked him after a reading i went to last fall, and at the time his answer was 2/3 years, he said he was working on it though

meanwhile, he has since published 1 short story in the new yorker (which must be part of the next book, as they never do anything else) and 1 essay in the same pub

based on the reading and the short story, i think this next book will involve a father/son relationship (shocker)

― Mary (Mary), Sunday, 27 July 2003 19:34 (twenty-two years ago)

five years pass...

http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2008/12/22/081222fi_fiction_antrim

I thought this story was fantastic, like on a should-be-anthologized level.

― ichard Thompson (Hurting 2), Saturday, 3 January 2009 23:10 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

Is this dude ever writing another novel?

― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 9 July 2010 15:00 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

/\/\/\/\/\

― Jung Danjah (admrl), Friday, 19 August 2011 21:34 (fourteen years ago)

Antrim's son Harry taught my undergrad English lit class in 1993; a few years later he taught an exemplary Eliot course in grad school. Nothing brilliant, but consistently entertaining. Dr. Antrim died last year.

― a 'catch-all', almost humorous, 'Jeez' quality (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 19 August 2011 21:38 (fourteen years ago)

uh Antrim's FATHER Harry

― a 'catch-all', almost humorous, 'Jeez' quality (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 19 August 2011 21:38 (fourteen years ago)

i oughtta read the one flagged up just upthread, but the short in the new yorker a few months back was v good, in case y'all are needing & missing antrim and missed it. he also did a great reading of a barthelme story for the new yorker fiction podcast. (i've never read any of the novels, this is the sum total of my knowledge of him).

― sweatpants life trajectory (schlump), Friday, 19 August 2011 22:06 (fourteen years ago)

Was that "I Bought A Little City" or something, about Galveston?

― Jung Danjah (admrl), Friday, 19 August 2011 22:07 (fourteen years ago)

the reading, yes!, iirc

― sweatpants life trajectory (schlump), Friday, 19 August 2011 22:10 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.newyorker.com/online/2007/07/09/070709on_audio_antrim

― sweatpants life trajectory (schlump), Friday, 19 August 2011 22:11 (fourteen years ago)

three years pass...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/magazine/donald-antrim-and-the-art-of-anxiety.html?ref=magazine&_r=0

― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 17 September 2014 20:28 (eleven years ago)

Wonderful piece, though John Jeremiah Sullivan's desire to put him into some sort of southern school of writing seems a little specious. The bit about David Foster Wallace was heartbreaking, both his support for ECT and how his suicide coincided with Antrim's birthday.

Looking forward to reading The Emerald Light in the Air.

― Tomás Piñon (Ryan), Wednesday, 17 September 2014 22:53 (eleven years ago)

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