![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/mulligan-stew.jpg\")
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Original Publication: 1979<\/p>\n
Original Publisher: Grove Press<\/p>\n
First Dalkey Archive Edition: 1996<\/p>\n
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“Cheers!” So this may be the first\u2014but definitely not the last\u2014entry in this series that is kind of weird.<\/em><\/p>\n First off, unlike the earlier posts, which try to say something semi-comprehensive about the book in question, this one is more of an invitation: I want everyone who reads this to join along with the landmark 20th<\/sup> Season of the Two Month Review podcast and read Mulligan Stew <\/em><\/a>with us throughout September and October. (And maybe a bit into November. Our idea of \u201cmonths\u201d and \u201ctime\u201d is a bit slippery.)<\/p>\n Additionally, as TMR progresses, I\u2019m going to be adding to this post every week. This may take the form of quotes, short analysis, info from outside sources, whatever. But in the end, it will be a chronicle of reading Mulligan Stew<\/em>, rather than a static, singular post.<\/p>\n Anyway! Let\u2019s dig in! Five reasons to read Mulligan Stew<\/em>:<\/p>\n 1) Sorrentino\u2019s Reputation.<\/strong><\/p>\n Sorrentino\u2019s career was long and varied, seeing that he experimented with form and the possibilities for fiction with each and every book. There may well be a \u201cSorrentino Voice\u201d\u2014a bit sardonic, sharp observations, exacting in terms of how language and fiction function\u2014but I\u2019m hard pressed to think of a particular style <\/em>or approach <\/em>that would define his career. If you talk to a half-dozen Sorrentino fans\u2014all of whom would be more qualified than I am to write this\u2014you\u2019ll end up with an array of both \u201cbest\u201d Sorrentino books and suggestions of \u201cwhere to start\u201d with his oeuvre. Splendide-H\u00f4tel <\/em><\/a>\u2014a remarkable meditation of sorts, akin to Gass\u2019s On Being Blue<\/em><\/a>\u2014is a great starting point, although Aberration of Starlight <\/em><\/a>might be the most emotional, and most straightforward in terms of the formal experimentation. Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things <\/em><\/a>might be the funniest\u2014and filled with the most daggers\u2014and The Sky Changes <\/em><\/a>is the book everyone should read when they\u2019re preparing for a divorce. Steelwork<\/em><\/a> is unparalleled in how it captures the ins and outs of a particular Brooklyn neighborhood, and Crystal Vision<\/em><\/a> does something similar, but using the tarot as its framework. Gold Fools <\/em><\/a>is a novel in all questions, and, well, Mulligan Stew <\/em>(my personal favorite and the only of his books with its own Wikipedia entry) is a complete blast from start to finish.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2) It\u2019s a Book about Writing a Book.<\/strong><\/p>\n The most Dalkey of all Dalkey tropes! But in this case, rather than focusing on the difficulties of figuring out how to write a book, Mulligan Stew <\/em>revels in the generative nature of creation, spilling forth list after list, joke after joke, opinion after opinion. It\u2019s like Flann O\u2019Brien on crack, with a touch of the movies covered on the How Did This Get Made? <\/em>podcast.<\/p>\n Here’s the set-up, as simply as I can put it: Antony Lamont is an experimental writer who has never really received the attention he (thinks) he deserves for his novels. But this new book he\u2019s working on? This is going to be the one. A \u201cnew wave murder mystery\u201d narrated by the killer, that merges detective fiction and high literature. And is populated by characters he\u2019s borrowed from James Joyce, Dashiell Hammett, etc., etc. (Antony Lamont is a reference to Flann O\u2019Brien\u2019s At Swim-Two-Birds<\/em>)\u2014characters who, when Lamont isn\u2019t paying attention (aka, actively writing about them), they\u2019re exploring the half-written house they live in and the nearby town, seeking a way out <\/em>of this horribly written book. In addition to excerpts from the \u201cnovel in progress\u201d and the characters inside, we get to read Lamont\u2019s increasingly unhinged correspondence with his sister (especially about her husband, his literary nemesis), a professor who maybe wants to teach one of his books, a poet he\u2019s trying to get into bed, and so so much more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3) Myriad Forms That Dissect the Nature of Writing.<\/strong><\/p>\n Although there are certain recurring bits, a big appeal of this book\u2014for me at least\u2014is its diversity of forms, aping everything from detective novels to erotica to epistolary novels to surreal plays to . . . And in each instance, Sorrentino via Lamont manages to expose the quirks and flaws and oddnesses at the limits of fiction. Things that conventional novels coax us into ignoring are presented so baldly in this novel in a way that\u2019s funny and aesthetically captivating.<\/p>\n This will become more and more apparent over the course of this season of TMR<\/em>, but here are a few fun little quotes to whet your appetite.<\/p>\n First, this is from the front matter, which is a series of rejections of the novel Mulligan Stew<\/em>:<\/p>\n Dear Gilbert Sorrentino:<\/p>\n It\u2019s wonderful of you to think of us here at New Views Press as possible publishers for your new novel, MULLIGAN STEW. Wow! as my seven-year-old says, all too often, six hundred pages sounds like something! When you say you worked on it almost four years, I can well believe you!<\/p>\n I\u2019m afraid my \u201cbatting average\u201d at second-guessing \u201cthe Boss\u201d is somewhat less than 1.000 right now, but I\u2019ll go \u201cout on a limb\u201d and risk telling you that it seems very doubtful that we can even consider taking it on, \u201calas\u201d!<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve read the newspaper \u201cstories\u201d\u2014albeit many of them were predictably exaggerated\u2014on the dolphin-training project that L was deeply involved in and that came, unfortunately, \u201ca-cropper.\u201d L was rather upset, partly because of the money loss involved, but more importantly, because he hoped to publish an anthology of \u201cDolphin Poems,\u201d translated by Dr. Mullion Blasto. You can imagine what a \u201cblow\u201d it was to L when Blasto went with Disney. But enough of our troubles!<\/p>\n At the moment, as above noted, I would venture a tentative guess that L simply could not think of publishing such a work as yours. We are still \u201cpicking up the pieces\u201d here. I take the liberty of wishing you and yours well, and of extending L\u2019s good wishes to you.<\/p>\n To \u201cgood letters,\u201d<\/p>\n John Cates<\/p>\n Managing Editor<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “Hot Bodies”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hot bodies entwined together<\/p>\n stuck with sweat, the gorgeous guck of love.<\/p>\n We fuck . . .<\/p>\n \u2014all unashamed!<\/p>\n Proud of our . . .<\/p>\n Hot bodies!<\/p>\n In my laughing flesh lies hidden<\/p>\n that dark inferno, Life\u2019s secret Word.<\/p>\n It yearns to reach out and whisper<\/p>\n to your smold\u2019ring core. It CANNOT! It CANNOT!<\/p>\n So you, beloved, in my widespread loins must find<\/p>\n the entrance to this deep and tender Word.<\/p>\n YES!!! YES!!!<\/p>\n Only the dead<\/p>\n say \u201cNo\u201d to love. Our hot bodies\u2014are aflame<\/p>\n with Life! And now your Life plunges<\/p>\n to my thrilling deeps . . . OH!!!<\/p>\n . . . I swiftly swoon . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And here are some of the clich\u00e9s a group of cowboy characters have been subjected to by hack writers over all the books they appeared in;<\/p>\n In one job I threw my clothes on at least twenty times.<\/p>\n My interest slackens when I\u2019m forced to watch the smoke from my cigarette curl lazily in the air.<\/p>\n Especially when it\u2019s blue smoke . . . and it\u2019s always blue smoke!<\/p>\n But how often have you thoughtfully knocked out your pipe? Or filled it?<\/p>\n If I stretch luxuriously one more time . . .<\/p>\n Right! But how do you feel about your eyes scanning the horizon?<\/p>\n That\u2019s as bad as not liking it because it\u2019s too quiet.<\/p>\n How many times, I pray you, have you emerged into the sunlight blinking?<\/p>\n Not as many times as I\u2019ve grabbed for the phone.<\/p>\n I once had a position where I wheedled every third page.<\/p>\n I was once dazzlingly insouciant to the point of nausea.<\/p>\n I\u2019m damn sick of getting home and going straight to bed without washing.<\/p>\n I\u2019m just as tired of the sun in my eyes always waking me up.<\/p>\n How do you like the wet streets that shimmer in the fog? I\u2019m up to here with them.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t mind the women whose bosoms heave\u2014unless they crack their gum. Or chew it furiously. Or simper.<\/p>\n I was in a scene once with a woman who primped and simpered. As a matter of fact, I think she also whimpered.<\/p>\n As long as she didn\u2019t whine . . .<\/p>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n 4) Incredibly Funny.<\/strong><\/p>\n But truly, this is a masterpiece of comedic literature. Again, it\u2019s like Extreme Flann O\u2019Brien, or maybe a bit like a contemporary Tristram Shandy<\/em>. It\u2019s a giant book, and one that does raise\u2014and answer\u2014certain questions about fiction and the craft of writing (this is one of Sorrentino\u2019s \u201cwriter\u2019s writer\u201d sort of books), but it\u2019s a book that truly entertains on every page. There are bits\u2014often crass or crude\u2014that function more like traditional jokes, but most of the humor arises from the voices\u2014also frequently crass and crude\u2014found throughout, especially Antony Lamont\u2019s which is soooooo <\/em>self-serious at times, frequently cringey, and increasingly more and more batshit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 5) Bad Writing Is So Good.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s really hard to pull off, but intentionally bad writing is so rewarding to read. Just like really bad movies can be so fun. I used to spout off about\u2014at every logical opportunity\u2014a \u201ctheory\u201d I had about art that ~95% of it is devoutly mediocre: technically competent, fine enough, but basically just average. <\/em>And instead of wasting time on those sort of middling movies or books, I only wanted to read the truly amazing, and the absolutely awful.<\/p>\n And in Mulligan Stew<\/em>, you get both!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bonus: There\u2019s Baseball In It.<\/strong><\/p>\n Just a moment to insert the scorecard of the baseball game Sollis took me to. Whatever it means! It has a certain arcane beauty to it, though. A conversation piece if I work at a decent job soon? I showed it to Ned just before he left and he glanced at it and laughed long and loud.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Again, this book is a one-of-a-kind tour de force that is very re-readable, and a great entryway to the Sorrentino world\u2014I\u2019m looking forward to rereading, and writing about, so many of his books over the next couple years\u2014and I can\u2019t wait to dig into this with my TMR <\/em>cohost, Brian Wood (author of Joytime Killbox <\/em>and a forthcoming novel featuring a character whose persona and writing would be right at home in Mulligan Stew<\/em>), a number of guests, and, hopefully, all of you.<\/p>\n Buy a copy of the book, follow along with the reading schedule, and enjoy this season!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mulligan Stew Gilbert Sorrentino Original Publication: 1979 Original Publisher: Grove Press First Dalkey Archive Edition: 1996 “Cheers!” So this may be the first\u2014but definitely not the last\u2014entry in this series that is kind of weird. First off, unlike the earlier posts, which try to say something semi-comprehensive about the book in question, this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":441932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71882,67426],"tags":[3316,72112,72102,72032,67366],"class_list":["post-441902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-readingdap","category-two-month-review","tag-context","tag-gilbert-sorrentino","tag-mulligan-stew","tag-reading-the-dalkey-archive","tag-tmr"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441902"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442052,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441902\/revisions\/442052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/sorrentino.jpeg\")
Gilbert Sorrentino is a foundational Dalkey Archive author. Actually, more than that, he\u2019s like the literary father figure that the press\u2019s catalog aspires to impress. He was one of John O\u2019Brien\u2019s aesthetic mentors, and a very close friend who was instrumental in the foundation of the Review of Contemporary Fiction <\/em>and the press as a whole. (I think they came up with the name \u201cDalkey Archive Press\u201d together.) The number of stories I heard about \u201cGil\u201d\u2014even though Gil was no longer speaking to John at the time, which, gulp, yeah, I totally <\/em>get\u2014could fill volumes. I heard about how Gil didn\u2019t have any depth perception, thus fuck metaphor. I heard about the people who lived in the apartment complex that was the setting for Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things<\/em>, which was the Novel of Dismissive Mean-spiritedness that John latched onto.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/ms2.jpeg\")
Next up, a poem from Lorna Flambeaux\u2019s The Sweat of Love<\/em>:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/ms1.jpeg\")
I think this is obvious by now, but damn, this book is just delightful<\/em>. Sure, it\u2019s about a writer\u2019s mental breakdown and mental illness is no joke, but holy shit, I dare you to read this book and not laugh. Even the mathematical paper that\u2019s inserted in here (what isn\u2019t <\/em>included?) is funny in a certain light.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/mulligan-stew-baseball-616x800.png\")
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