Arcade: Or How to Write a Novel

Rating:
Summary: He doesn't know how
Review: The subtitle should have tipped me off. This isn't in any way about how to write a novel. Lish is asking the question. He doesn't know how to write a novel. Arcade is proof.

Rating:
Summary: A single moment in one's life is what a novel is -- today.
Review: This author subtitles his story, "Or How to Write a Novel," which is the key to understanding the wanderings and the repetitous manner of the telling. As in many of his previous novels ("Peru" is the best example), there is a moment in life that is fashioned as a diamond, hardened and central to the emotional life of the protagonist. In "Arcade," it is the trip to a vacation spot and a few moments that stick in the character, I Gordon's, memory. All else revolves around that, and always will.

Lish goes the next step beyond Sam Beckett. And like Beckett, Lish says our lives are a vaudeville routine at best. Gordon Lish deserves a better reading by critics and, especially, NYTimes reviewers.