Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Coles, Robert - Francis X. Rocca (review date March 1989)

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Francis X. Rocca (review date March 1989)

SOURCE: Review of Harvard Diary and That Red Wheelbarrow: Selected Literary Essays, in American Spectator, Vol. 22, No. 3, March 1989, pp. 40-41.

[In the following review, Rocca assesses Coles' style and approach to writing and thinking about issues covered in Harvard Diary and That Red Wheelbarrow.]

A few years ago, before starting a lecture on the "Literature of Social Reflection" (a course for Harvard undergraduates that dwells on suffering and sacrifice in life and literature), Robert Coles was preempted by a prankster from the Harvard Lampoon. The Phool (an initiate into the Lampoon) walked to the front of the class and performed an uncanny imitation. He employed the professor's pacing and a characteristic mannerism, tugging at his sweater. His monologue recounted a fanciful highway pile-up, ostensibly witnessed by the professor on the way to work in a...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Melvin J. Friedman (review date Fall 1982)
   2. Neil Postman (review date 19 January 1986)
   3. Katherine Paterson (review date 2 February 1986)
   4. Jonathan Kellerman (review date 9 February 1986)
   5. New Yorker (review date 10 February 1986)
   6. John Leo (review date 17 March 1986)
   7. Kenneth L. Woodward (review date 6 September 1987)
   8. Jeff Dietrich (review date 13 September 1987)
   9. Fitzhugh Mullan (review date 8 May 1988)
   10. Helen Bevington (review date 26 February 1989)
   11. Francis X. Rocca (review date March 1989)
   12. Iain Bamforth (review date 7-13 July 1989)
   13. Sanford Pinsker (essay date Summer 1989)
   14. Herbert Mitgang (review date 21 November 1990)
   15. Laura Sessions Stepp (review date 23 December 1990)
   16. The New Yorker (review date 7 January 1991)
   17. Virginia C. Hoch (review date 26 August-2 September 1992)
   18. A. J. S. (review date 1993)
   19. Michelle Huneven (essay date 3 October 1993)
   20. Robert A. Sirico (review date 15 November 1993)
   21. Gail Russell Chaddock (review date 9 December 1993)
   22. Ed Walraven (essay date 1994)
   23. Paulina F. Kernberg (review date October 1994)
   24. Richard Bernstein (review date 27 January 1997)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright