For William Gaddis, writing novels entailed a quasi-religious seriousness, akin, in spirit, to a ceremony of consolation. His novels may appear different from one another on the surfaces; yet, they each return to a set of abiding concerns, including...

"William Gaddis was born in New York City in 1922. His earlier and only other published work, The Recognitions, appeared in 1955." That is the complete biographical note on the jacket of Gaddis's second novel, J R (1975), and about all he would have...

In Gaddis' as well as Heller's and Pynchon's novels there is always apparent an ominous vertical structure of society, which finally appears to leave the individual completely at the mercy of its manipulative powers and with no human in control. But Gaddis, it seems, is much more of a Romantic than either Heller or Pynchon: there is individual triumph, and the inherent possibility of it, though necessarily of a very localized nature. Wyatt Gwyon in The Recognitions does reject finally t...

While the fictional achievement of William Gaddis is massive, both in importance and in sheer volume, the critical reception of his two novels has been skimpy and uncertain. (p. 61) The uncertain reception of Gaddis's novels is understandable; the reviews indicate common problems in both for a casual reader: complexity of event and structure, unusual treatment of character, a difficult narrative surface. Gaddis self-consciously anticipates his lack of an audience in both works…. If Gaddis�...