Volume 22, Number 20 · December 11, 1975
Barthelme the Scrivener
By Thomas R. Edwards
The Dead Father
by Donald Barthelme
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 177 pp., $7.95
The Famous Writers' School, Silly Putty, 'Attack of the Puppet People,' empty Schlitz cans, a Pontiac Chieftain, the Conrad Veidt Fan Club, Vogue, Debbie Reynolds, Kierkegaard, John Hawkes, Batman, the New York Times Sunday Magazine—the list is a sampling (one per story) of the ingredients of Donald Barthelme's first book, Come Back, Dr. Caligari, and in 1964 it was surprising and delightful to find serious literary intentions being pursued with indifference to the distinction between 'high' and 'popular' culture.
Review, 1778 words
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