What kind of book was
Ring Lardner's "great American" novel?
"It originally appeared during the darkest
days of the McCarthy era (1950s America).
Lardner was a blacklisted screenwriter
who had served a year in prison for
defying the House Un-American Activities
committee. The book was greeted with
near-deafening silence by the American
literary establishment, received virtually
no commercial distribution, and seemingly
sank into obscurity with a ripple.
Yet this extraordinary work -- perhaps
the finest satiric novel since those of
Nathaniel West -- refused to vanish. Its
reputation grew by word of mouth, rare
copies passed from hand to hand, and now
October 1972 it has re-surfaced in its NEW
American (SIGNET press) printing
to be recognized as the masterpiece it
most surely is.
A slashing commentary on such diverse
phenomena as
war
political repressing,
penal servitude,
racism,
organized religion,
big business,
liberalism,
sex,
and other familiar features of our age.
________________________________
Lardner won the Academy Award twice
for Woman of the Year (1943) and M*A*S*H
(1970)
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