The fiction of William Gass: the consolation of language

The first comprehensive study of the works of William Gass addresses the ex­tensive correlation between the theoreti­cal and fictional works and places Gass at the forefront of contemporary post-realism. Saltzman argues that contrary to charges of moral, artistic, or even politi­cal turpitude, the innovative fiction of William Gass represents a conscientious effort to contend with indeterminacy through art. In the fiction of Gass and other contemporary writers, the world of the text is a distinct and competitive ad­dition to reality, not a mere description of reality. Saltzman examines Gass’s major fic­tional works, Omensetter’s Luck and Willie Masters’ Lonesome Wife, the col­lected stories of In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, the extensive novel-in-progress The Tunnel, as well as the essay collections, Fiction and the Figures of Life and The World Within the Word.