Tag: harold bloom

• Is Holden Caulfield Obnoxious?

  3 months ago

  Austin Allen in Book Think

  You already know where you stand on Holden Caulfield. Either you found him a kindred spirit in your youth and continue to sympathize with him—less blindly, more wistfully—as you age; or else you found him a whiner then and you find him a whiner now. According to the New York Times, the second ... Read More

• Six Things That Are Dead, According to Harold Bloom

  4 months ago

  Austin Allen in Book Think

  Celebrated literary critic Harold Bloom turns eighty-two this year and is still publishing and teaching. In his honor, I’ve compiled a list of six things he’s outlived. 1) The Western canon. “Unfortunately, nothing will ever be the same because the art and passion of reading well and deeply ... Read More

• Cormac and Oprah, Revisited

  4 months ago

  Austin Allen in Book Think

  Five years ago this June, Cormac McCarthy appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show . Given McCarthy’s legendary reticence (he had done only one major interview in the past, with the New York Times in 1992) and exalted literary stature (he has won every major American book award; Harold Bloom has called ... Read More