Volume 35, Number 21 & 22 · January 19, 1989
A Case of the American Jitters
By Thomas R. Edwards
Last Notes from Home
by Frederick Exley
Random House, 397 pp., $18.95
A Fan's Notes: A Fictional Memoir
by Frederick Exley
Random House/Vintage, 385 pp., $7.95 (paper)
Pages from a Cold Island
by Frederick Exley
Random House/Vintage, 274 pp., $6.95 (paper)
The appearance of Last Notes from Home and the republication of A Fan's Notes (1968) and Pages from a Cold Island (1975) invite assessment of a curious literary career. On the evidence so far, Frederick Exley's is not a large talent; only one of his three books seems to me a clear, if odd, success. But in various ways all three tell some of the truth about the imagination in a culture like ours, and even their faults seem instructive and touching.
Review, 3244 words
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