The Review of Contemporary Fiction: Casebook Study of Gilbert Sorrentino's Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things: Spring 2003

Over the past twenty years, the Review of Contemporary Fiction has earned a reputation for being one of the most important journals covering contemporary literature. Through essays, excerpts and an extensive book review section, the Review is dedicated to the discussion and celebration of innovative fiction, and some of the most influential authors of the twentieth century have been featured in its pages. (See pg. 30 for a full list of available issues).Spring 2003 The spring issue of the Revew of Contemporary Fiction features a casebook study on Gilbert Sorrentino's Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things--a darkly comic recreation of the New York artistic and literary world of the 1950s and 60s told in the weary voice of a cynical and sardonic narrator. Featured on the Center for Book Culture website (www.centerforbookculture.org), casebook studies are designed to serve as a resource for readers--especially teachers and students--who desire some guidance in engaging challenging works of modern and contemporary literature. Each casebook contains an introduction by the casebook editor which offers an overview of the novel, its place in the author's oeuvre, and its critical reception. The other three to five essays that constitute a casebook offer different approaches to the novel and different interpretive strategies with which to understand it. Bookstores are encouraged to place standing orders for the Review of Contemporary Fiction (discount and terms are the same as for Dalkey titles).