Gilbert Sorrentino - Mulligan Stew

Dear Gil:

Im afraid that Isimply cant hold on to the manuscript of MULLIGAN STEW any longer, much as Idlike to, and so I am returning it to Marv.

I cant tell youhow much I admire the book. It seems to me superb, as a matter of fact, it isone of the most remarkably conceived and executed novels it has ever been mypleasure to read in manuscriptand I have been in this frustrating andthankless game for fourteen years now.

However, thesheer cost of doing your book is insurmountable for a small, still strugglinghouse like this one. To be frank with you, I must show a profit to the parentcompany before I can even consider getting behind a project like yours. Dontmisunderstand me: I will not publish schlock so as to make the money that mightjustify doing MULLIGAN STEW, or books like it. But I feel that the books on theFall list are not only good, but have definite market appeal. Of the six bookson our Fall list, three are really exciting and I am quite proud of them. One,already on the shelves, is, it seems to me, a necessary addition to Beatlelore The Compleat Beatle Wardrobe Book.The other twoThe Films of Roy Rogersand a zany, wonderful novel about life in California, Screwing In Sausalito, are risky but have received greatword-of-mouth publicity.

So, Gil, ifthings go well and MULLIGAN STEW is still looking for a publisher in a year(although I cant believe that a larger, better-off house wont snap it up),try me again.

All best,

Harry White

EditorialDirector

Dear Marv:

Thanks forsending Gil Sorrentinos MULLIGAN STEW. Weve had several interested readingshere but the conclusion, Im afraid, is that the narrative doesnt rise aboveits own ironyalthough one of our readers, a Sorrentino fan, felt that theirony hasnt the precision to cope with the strong narrative. Im sorry aboutthis.

Thanks again.

Yours,

Frank Bouvard

Editor-in-Chief

Dear Gilbert Sorrentino:

Its wonderful ofyou to think of us here at New Views Press as possible publishers for your newnovel, MULLIGAN STEW. Wow! as my seven-year-old says, all too often, sixhundred pages sounds like something! When you say you worked on it almost fouryears, I can well believe you!

Im afraid my battingaverage at second-guessing the Boss is somewhat less than 1.000 right now,but Ill go out on a limb and risk telling you that it seems very doubtfulthat we can even consider taking it on, alas!

Im sure youveread the newspaper storiesalbeit many of them were predictablyexaggeratedon the dolphin-training project that L was deeply involved in andthat came, unfortunately, a-cropper. L was rather upset, partly because ofthe money loss involved, but more importantly, because he hoped to publish an.anthology of Dolphin Poems, translated by Dr. Mullion Blasto. You can imaginewhat a blow it was to L when Blasto went with Disney. But enough of ourtroubles!

At the moment, asabove noted, I would venture a tentative guess that L simply could not think ofpublishing such a work as yours. We are still picking up the pieces here. Itake the liberty of wishing you and yours well, and of extending Ls goodwishes to you.

To good letters,

John Cates

Managing Editor

Dear Marv:

You asked me toenjoy it and I did enjoy it. Whatever Gil Sorrento does he does solidly andwith panache: he makes well what he makes: always: but why in hell did hebother to make this? Ah, well.

Lookit, you aretalking to a man who would have turned down Anna Lydia Plurabelleand with noregrets. Not that Im suggesting that theres a parallel between thatn andMULLIGAN STEW, save in respect of the horsing around. Which last is the pointif you get my point.

Put it this way:I am off play: for the rest of my life: even in my own fictions. I however,know what Sorrento can doand what Joyce himself could dowhen he is notplaying, and I will wait my time for that. My warmest regards to Gil.

All best,

Edgar Naylor

Senior Editor

Dear Marv:

After tworeadings and considerable discussion here, Im returning Robert Sorrentinosnovel, MULLIGAN STEW, without an offer.

Its not easy toturn down such an ambitious, literate (and literary), seriously conceived, and,in part, so entertaining a book. We were properly respectful of Sorrentinoswide reading, inventiveness, skill at parody, overall brilliance, and comicsense. What we dont respect as muchis his sense of economy. The book is far too long and exhausts ones patience.Its various worlds seem to us to lack the breadth and depth and width as wellto sustain so many pages. Comedy of this sort, i.e., the highest level ofallusive comedy, should be more of a hit-and-run affair, with, if you will, alaugh on every page, much like the comedy of the Elizabethans. Sorrentinosnarrative, however, seems splintered and made tentative by its own satiricemphases. I guess you get my drift.

Im grateful toSorrentino for the good momentsquite a few!his manuscript gave me. But it isnot the totally perfect stunner such a book must be to make even us undertakeit.

I would love tosee anything that Sorrentino does in the future, and please tell him that forme.

As ever,

Alan Hobson

Managing Editor

Dear Mr. Koenigburg:

I am sorry that I did not get aroundsooner to MULLIGAN STEW. As you surely know, it is an enormous book and it tooktime to unravel the warp and weave of the authors purpose, if purpose he has.

I wish I couldsay it is for our list, but alas! it isnt. It is much too long by half, and tothis eye, needlessly sothe author seems obsessed with (unnecessary)insertions, (useless) repetitions, twice and thrice-told tales, and reams ofincomprehensible lists. Another thing that really bothered me a lot was aclich quality in the writinglife as a jigsaw puzzle, or the skys flawlessblue, etc. Really! The author also seems sorely in need of a lesson or two inEnglish grammar and the use of syntax.

So, not being inreal sympathy and admiration for either form or substance, both of which seemto me to be more shadow than anything else, I return the manuscript to you,with my sincere apologies for the delay--delays are always cruel to youngauthors, particularly if they raise hopes that will be dashed.

Sincerely yours,

Yvonne Firmin

Editor-in-Chief

Dear Gil Sorrentino:

Im sorry thatMarv Koenigburg didnt tell you that I am in fact no longer with Bond andHowardor barely so. I am about to leave to join my senior colleague DackVerlaine in starting our own publishing house, a subsidiary, wholly owned, ofCynosure Oil. I wont therefore be able to consider your novel one way or theother for Bond and Howard, nor for our new ventureour list is pretty well setfor the next year or so.

Well be doinglittle fiction here anyway, for the economic reasons you so expertly outlinedin your good letter. As you certainly know, I am a novelist too, my first book,BREAKING GLASSES, being touted as best first novel of 1964 by DempseyDumpster in Bookiana. My secondnovel, even more brilliant and evocative of its time, has gone begging for fiveyears now, and everybody in America loves it! Its so dated by now that Imthinking of calling it GARTER BELT DAYS. So you see, it is hard for all of usartists, no matter what! The situation is so bad that if they did publish my novel, I myself couldntbuy a copy!

Heard a lot aboutyour IMAGINARY QUALITIES AND THINGS!! Id loveto read it if you have a copy lying around. Good luck!

Cordially,

Flo Dowell

Dear Marvin:

Thanks so muchfor thinking of us for Gilbert Sorrentinos MULLIGAN STEW, an amazing book. Insome ways, I think a great book, perhaps even a masterpiece. It has the samepainfulness and paranoia asand much more bone-deep eloquence thanGalsworthyssketch of a writer, and it is also funny as hell. Everything in the book hasthe touch of the virtuoso. Trouble is, I got bored, and so did another reader.The book is so long it took us the better part of two weeks to read it. Itsalso a book that is terribly bookish and only a very special audience will taketo it at all.