On May 24, 2017, at 7:49 AM, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
David,
I did read your note. In fact I read it twice thinking I ought to respond,
but we are in the midst of a heat wave here in Southern California and I am
reading or watching all sorts of things rather than hiking and photographing
and walking the dogs, and so being tired couldn’t find or think of a hook.
But I will add, because you used the word criticism (J), that I have been
reading Edith Wharton recently and was astounded by how good she is. Years
ago I read the mandatory Ethan Frome and didn’t care for it, but in the past
couple of weeks have read The Marne, The Reef, and The Age of Innocence.
This spate of reading began after reading an old NYROB review of the Library
of America’s issuance of one of their volumes of Wharton’s writings. I
downloaded a Kindle collection that turned out to have far fewer typos than
their typical collections and read the novels I mentioned and then read some
things about Wharton – quite an important literary figure in her day – and
with The Reef, and The Age of Innocence clearly in mind, she deserved it.
