Donald Barthelme, one of the masters of post-war fiction in the United States, was born in Philadelphia in 1931. Much of his early career would be spent in journalism, both in the military and in the civilian world. A Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967 allowed him to write his first novel, Snow White. He would spend the rest of his life teaching and writing fiction until his death in 1989.
a daring tour de force that combines legend, parody and literature' -Herbert Mitgang, New York Times
The King is Arthur himself, even though Barthelme's brief novel is set during World War II. As ``real'' battles rage far offstage, the Knights of the Round Table are busy ``rushing and riding, foining and striking.'' Meanwhile, Lord Haw-Haw keeps the populace abreast of Guinevere's infidelities in his broadcasts from Berlin. Sad to say, the late Barthelme doesn't do much with Arthur. The irony is tired, the whimsy facile, the language numbing in its archaic banality: ``Yonder knights hurtle together like rams to bear either other down!'' Faithful readers of Barthelme may appreciate The King ; others will wonder whether it would have seen publication without his name attached.-- Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id.
a daring tour de force that combines legend, parody and literature' -Herbert Mitgang, New York Times
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