A Critic Who Worships Literature, and Defends His Faith Accordingly
By Nathaniel Rich, NYT,
AMERICAN AUDACITY
In Defense of Literary Daring
By William Giraldi
462 pp. Liveright. $30.
In Defense of Literary Daring
By William Giraldi
462 pp. Liveright. $30.
If
literature, as William Giraldi writes in “American Audacity,” is “the
one religion worth having,” then Giraldi is our most tenacious
revivalist preacher, his sermons galvanized by a righteous exhortative
energy, a mastery of the sacred texts and — unique in contemporary
literary criticism — an enthusiasm for moralizing in defense of high
standards. “Do I really expect Americans to sit down with ‘Adam Bede’ or
‘Clarissa’ after all the professional and domestic hurly-burly of their
day?” he asks in an essay bemoaning “Fifty Shades of Grey.” “Pardon me,
but yes, I do.” The only insincerity there is the request for pardon:
Giraldi is defiantly, lavishly unforgiving.
