Conversations with John Gardner

Unfortunately -- and this is not a fault of the book, but merely the way conversations are -- John Gardner is "less ordered" or "organized" here than in his writings on literary criticisms, since these are, after all, interviews, transcripts. (Actually, one or two or three pieces are articles based on interviews, which allow for the interviewers' reflections on the interviews.) Very interesting, all the same, and, unlike prepared remarks, these conversations has Gardner in his own informal, everyday language. I don't think they helped me understand his works all that much better, necessarily, but I did get a better sense of the man and what he was like, and that helps, too, towards getting a handle on his works. Part of my continued fascination with Gardner, after all, is that he seems one of the few "philosophical writers" who talk about his works not in the language of a theorist but, mainly, in the language of a thinking reader, an intelligent reader. He discusses his works and the motivations behind them, but unfortunately of course it's all over the place; a "topical index" for his works would have been great (say, under "October Light" would be listed all the references to that title in this collection of interviews). As it is, it's a needle-in-haystack hunt if you're interested in some particular point or other: there's just no way of quickly researching anything here! Still, a good book and a welcome addition to my library.