Subject: THE KING by Donald Barthelme

From: [email-masked] (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070)
Date: 28 Jul 92 06:26:45 GMT

THE KING by Donald Barthelme
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
                     Copyright 1992 by Evelyn C. Leeper

     The Nazis are bombing London, but King Arthur also has to contend with
Lord Haw-Haw's broadcasts accusing Guinevere of infidelities.  If this
sounds just a little "off"--well, that what's it is.  It's the
"transhistorical party" (described by Brian McHale in POSTMODERNIST FICTION
and perhaps made most popular by Steve Allen in his "Meeting of the Minds"
television series)--the meeting of people of different historical eras and
different "ontological statuses" (Lord Haw-Haw was real; King Arthur may
have had a real existence but the King Arthur we know from story and legend
bears little resemblance to that; the Black Knight was purely a literary
creation).

     Maybe I just don't get it.  It was amusing enough, seeing the old ideas
of chivalry contrasted with the realities of the modern world, but there's
only enough there for a short story, and this is a 30,000-word novella.
(And though it may be heresy, I think Howard Waldrop would have done it
better.)  I know that Donald Barthelme is well-respected in literary
circles; it's just that from this book I can't tell why.  (I did like
Moser's illustrations, perhaps even more than the text.)

%A      Barthelme, Donald
%T      The King
%I      Penguin
%C      New York
%D      1990
%O      trade paperback, US$8.00 [1992]
%G      ISBN 0-14-014992-9
%P      159pp

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 908 957 2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or [email-masked]