Mrs. Ted Bliss (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Stanley Elkin
- First Published: 1995
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: 1980-1992
- Setting: Chiefly Miami Beach
- Principal Characters: Mrs. Ted Bliss (Dorothy), Ted Bliss, Frank, Maxine, Marvin, Barry, Ellen, Manny, Milt “Junior” Yellin, Alcibiades Chitral, Louise Munoz, Holmer Toibbi
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Death or dying
- Locales: Miami Beach, FL
Stanley Elkin was a postmodern Walt Whitman singing America (“the varied carols I hear”), his seventeen books a massive Whitmanic “Song of Occupations.” His Jewish American “barbaric yawp” is excessive, extravagant, exact—as Elkin himself liked to say, “More is more.” Whitman’s great hope was that the country that he believed was itself the greatest poem would “absorb him as affectionately as he had absorbed it.” Like Whitman, Elkin wanted to be if not “absorbed,” then accepted, and he longed for his books to be bought, read, praised, honored, and not only...
[The entire page is 1988 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also
