{"id":514,"date":"2005-03-07T14:52:00","date_gmt":"2005-03-07T19:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=514"},"modified":"2005-12-09T10:38:41","modified_gmt":"2005-12-09T15:38:41","slug":"to-the-editor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/to-the-editor","title":{"rendered":"To the editor"},"content":{"rendered":"

On March 7, the New York Times<\/a> published an article entitled, “Literary Novelists Address 9\/11, Finally<\/a>“, on the occasion of several new novels about the attacks and their aftermath.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, your writer seems not to have researched this matter well enough. In September 2003, I published Paul West’s novel, “The Immensity of the Here and Now: A Novel of 9.11.” This book was reviewed by the Village Voice, Library Journal, Booklist, Midwest Book Review, American Book Review the Santa Fe New Mexican, Boston’s NPR affiliate (WBUR) and the Air Force Academy’s literary Journal, War Literature and the Arts (where it was the Editor’s Choice), among other venues.<\/p>\n

Among the comments Immensity received:<\/p>\n

“‘The Immensity Of The Here And Now’ is profound, disturbing, and a compelling inner study of picking up the pieces in the wake of personal devastation.” (Midwest Book Review)<\/p>\n

“In Paul West’s 23rd book of fiction [. . .], the aftereffects of [9\/11] gradually come into view, then withdraw into a jungle of memory and hallucination — the tragedy perpetually accessible and elusive, too easy and too impossible to imagine.” (Village Voice)<\/p>\n

“As West so ingeniously perceives it, 9.11 is not just a day that will live in infamy, but an infamy that will exist at a particular place and on a particular day forever.” (War, Literature and the Arts)<\/p>\n

“Risky, raucous, filled with moments of audacious beauty, ‘Immensity’ proves that West, our foremost word wizard, won’t play it safe, unlike so many American artists.” (Bill Marx at WBUR radio)<\/p>\n

“West’s phenomenal command of language and the flux of consciousness, and his epic sense of the significance of 9\/11 are staggering in their verve, astuteness, and resonance.” (Booklist Magazine)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Immensity was also blurbed by literary critics Sven Birkerts, Irving Malin and Hugh Nissenson. The book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s sites, along with national distribution to bookstores via several wholesalers and distributors. An extensive collection of reviews and blurbs is on the book’s site [now defunct. –ed]<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The New York Times received advance copies four months before publication, but declined to review the novel. Evidently, a new work of fiction about 9\/11 by a literary author with more than 20 volumes to his credit was not even deemed “new and noteworthy.”<\/p>\n

Given the limited space the paper has for book reviews, I can understand the decision to pass. However, I can’t begin to imagine why Mr. Wyatt would write, “only now are books being published that some literary critics are saying take the substantial risks needed to give them staying power” when The Immensity of the Here and Now has been in print for 18 months.<\/p>\n

Paul West may be a difficult writer, but he is one whom we should not ignore. <\/p>\n

Gil Roth
Publisher
Voyant Publishing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 7, the New York Times published an article entitled, “Literary Novelists Address 9\/11, Finally“, on the occasion of several new novels about the attacks and their aftermath. Unfortunately, your writer seems not to have researched this matter well enough. In September 2003, I published Paul West’s novel, “The Immensity of the Here and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “To the editor”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-8i","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":141,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/thanks","url_meta":{"origin":514,"position":0},"title":"Thanks!","author":"Gil","date":"February 24, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Record traffic for Virtual Memories this month (and there's still a few days left, plus it's a short month)!Now if only more of you would buy The Immensity of the Here and Now, that novel about 9.11 by Paul West that I published last fall.Last week, I mentioned that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":214,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/war-literature-and-the-arts","url_meta":{"origin":514,"position":1},"title":"War, Literature and the Arts","author":"Gil","date":"April 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a magazine of that title, published by the U.S. Air Force Academy. The new book by Paul West that I published last year was just named Editor's Choice in the current issue. I'm proud of that.Reviewer Lt. Col. James M. Meredith writes, \"Paul West's fiction stunningly and perpetually deals\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":108,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/blurb-tastic","url_meta":{"origin":514,"position":2},"title":"Blurb-Tastic!","author":"Gil","date":"December 9, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you a fan of the films of Hal Hartley? Well, Hal's a fan of Paul West's The Immensity of the Here and Now: a novel of 9.11 (which I recently published)! Here's what Hal had to say about the book:\"It's a beautiful and penetrating evocation of the confused emotions\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-here-and-now-of-the-immensity","url_meta":{"origin":514,"position":3},"title":"The Here and Now of the Immensity","author":"Gil","date":"April 21, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Spoke to Paul West earlier (and, for a brief moment, his lovely wife, Diane Ackerman), to make sure we were on the same page regarding his new novel, The Immensity of the Here and Now. At present, I'm wrapping up the process of selecting a printer. This is the first\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/first-review","url_meta":{"origin":514,"position":4},"title":"First Review","author":"Gil","date":"September 10, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Forever BummerPaul West's Novel Blends 9-11, Philosophy, and Nigellaby Ed ParkVillage VoiceSeptember 10 - 16, 2003The Immensity of the Here and Now: A Novel of 9.11By Paul West Voyant, 231 pp., $23 What would a proper novelistic response be to the attacks of 9-11? If everyone knows the central story,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/well-show-them-well-show-them-all-part-345656","url_meta":{"origin":514,"position":5},"title":"We’ll Show Them, We’ll Show Them All: Part 345,656","author":"Gil","date":"August 16, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"In today's mail:\"Dear Mr. Roth,\"Thank you for submitting The Immensity of the Her [sic] and Now for our consideration. After careful consideration, we have determined that this book does not meet our needs and\/or selection criteria.\"We wish you success in marketing your book and thank you for your interest in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}