Barthelme, Donald (Vol. 8) - Barthelme, Donald 1931–
Barthelme, Donald 1931–
American novelist and short story writer, Barthelme has been dubbed by Peter Ackroyd "the P. G. Wodehouse of surrealism" for his experimental fiction. Most critics agree that the lack of organization in his prose reflects his doubt of any fundamental structure in society. (See also CLC, Vols. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 21-24, rev. ed.)
Barthelme is a shrewd writer if ultimately a trivial one, and it is clever of him to choose a relatively peripheral historical conflict [in Snow White] in order to show how all sides are interchangeable, each having its own spurious myths … and its own clichés…. Equally characteristic of the new American writing is the way this total disillusionment with the supposed "complexities" of history turns directly into verbal clowning: two opposed alternatives of participation in a Mexican revolution suddenly switch into a farcical tangent, expressed in...
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