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Article: The Unconsoled. (book reviews)
- Article from:
- Harper's Magazine
- Article date:
- October 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Harper's Magazine Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Not long ago, a "rumor" was reported by that official organ of Anglo-American culture, The New Yorker, that Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie had fallen out over the literary merits and lasting significance of the work of Samuel Beckett. Being an American audience, we weren't told which of them believed in Beckett and which didn't; the anecdote sat in the midst of the piece, a profile of Amis, just to show us how serious these English writers are.
Indeed, they are serious. Such a snippet of literary gossip about two American writers would never see the light of day in the United States, this kind of issue being unimaginable as a point of dispute here in any case. And as ...