James Purdy

Reviews / Votes

Through his writing, Purdy offers his readers a window on the sexual experiences of an America that remains largely hidden from view. * Looi van Kessel, an assistant professor of Literary Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, The Gay & Lesbian Review * This biography of a cult writer and pioneer of queer fiction tries to reconcile mainstream neglect of his work with the acclaim he received from authors including Tennessee Williams and Susan Sontag....Snyder takes us from Purdy's childhood on an Ohio farm to his final years in New York, in a tantalizing portrait of a man with a talent for alienating colleagues, but also for conveying 'a tragic sense of life couched in dark laughter.' * New Yorker (Briefly Noted) * For Purdy fans, it [Snyder's biography] offers a welcome trove of new details about a man who was as ornery in life as he was on the page. For everyone else, it offers something even better: a cornucopia of literary gossip. * Jon Michaud, New Yorker * Meticulously researched.... Snyder deserves applause for having delivered James's important and ramshackle life in so neat of a volume...with enough novel detail that even a reader like me, who knew James for two decades, will find value and pleasure in reading the book....I recommend that you go out and buy [James Purdy:] Life of a Contrarian Writer from your local independent bookstore and devote however many days and hours you need to read it. You won't be wasting your time. * Matthew Stadler, Los Angeles Review of Books * Snyder makes a strong case for Purdy as a visionary American Genius * Looi Van Kessel, Gay and Lesbian Review * James Purdy was out of category, out of this world, and hence, often out of print. He was also, without question, one of the most original American writers of the twentieth century. Michael Snyder has performed an essential public service by bringing this to your attention. So please heed it. * Fran Lebowitz * With his crazy prose and graveside view of life, James Purdy felt to generations of young writers under his bewitching spell like a moral compass, though one that never stopped spinning. In the black-diamond tradition of Denton Welch, Paul Bowles, even the later Herman Melville, he revealed what strange, crooked marvels the imagination might discover if left alone. Thank you, Michael Snyder, for framing, for a new generation, the fitfully forgotten but never forgettable life and fiction of James Purdy. * Brad Gooch, author of Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor * A beautifully in-depth literary biography of a maddening, inflammatory, eccentric, and very important writer. James Purdy is probably the most important writer you've never heard of, and Michael Snyder makes an impeccable case for why American fiction wouldn't be what it is without him. * Brian Evenson, author of Song for the Unraveling of the World * Snyder presents Purdy as an artist well worth knowing and appreciating...Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. * Choice * Michael Snyder's engaging new biography, James Purdy: The Life of a Contrarian Writer, is a welcome addition to Purdy studies. This thoroughly researched biography provides a fascinating portrait of the literary and publishing world of mid-to-late-twentieth-century America. Snyder's careful, evenhanded biography is not destined to attract converts to Purdy's strenuous genius. But the biography does offer a treasure trove of information for Purdy readers and scholars, and in this sense, it is a significant achievement, the value of which is hard to overstate. * Don Adams, The ALH Review *