Portnoy's Bachelor Uncle, by Marvin Mudrick, THE HUDSON REVIEW

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Portnoy's Bachelor Uncle

Letters to Friends, Family and Editors, by Franz Kafka

by Marvin Mudrick

The Hudson Review, Autumn 1978, pp. 507-516

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Issues of the 1940s = 2 Years, 7 Issues, 126 Articles
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Issues of the 1960s = 10 Years, 39 Issues, 810 Articles
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  Issues of 1960 = 4 Issues, 79 Articles
2. [+]
  Issues of 1961 = 4 Issues, 81 Articles
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  Issues of 1962 = 4 Issues, 79 Articles
4. [+]
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  Issues of 1967 = 4 Issues, 92 Articles
9. [+]
  Issues of 1968 = 3 Issues, 72 Articles
10. [+]
  Issues of 1969 = 4 Issues, 89 Articles
[+]
Issues of the 1970s = 10 Years, 40 Issues, 799 Articles
1. [+]
  Issues of 1970 = 4 Issues, 85 Articles
2. [+]
  Issues of 1971 = 4 Issues, 77 Articles
3. [+]
  Issues of 1972 = 4 Issues, 77 Articles
4. [+]
  Issues of 1973 = 4 Issues, 80 Articles
5. [+]
  Issues of 1974 = 4 Issues, 77 Articles
6. [+]
  Issues of 1975 = 4 Issues, 78 Articles
7. [+]
  Issues of 1976 = 4 Issues, 73 Articles
8. [+]
  Issues of 1977 = 4 Issues, 73 Articles
9. [+]
  Issues of 1978 = 4 Issues, 95 Articles
  1. [+]
    Spring 1978 Issue = 30 Articles
    1. Notes on Contributors, pp. 5-6
    2. Readers' Survey, pp. 7-18
    3. What Was Modernism? by Robert Martin Adams, pp. 19-33
    4. Us or Them by Patricia Meyer Spacks, pp. 34-52
    5. The Shape of Death in American Autobiography by G. Thomas Couser, pp. 53-66
    6. Magic by Dinitia Smith, pp. 67-85
    7. The Quality of Unmercy by Frawley Becker, pp. 86-106
    8. The Metamorphosis; "In this dream"; "There's the reality"; The Life They Lead; "I want ... by David Ignatow, pp. 107-110
    9. Noon, Toronto; Jungle Gardens; Driving South; Buffalo/Stasis by Jerome Mazzaro, pp. 111-113
    10. I Imagine Driving Across Country; My Grandfather Walks in the Woods by Marilyn Waniek, pp. 114-116
    11. The Bones that Shape the Emptiness by Jeanne Foster Hill, pp. 117-119
    12. He Goes to a Costume Party Dressed as Gerard Manley Hopkins by Philip Dacey, pp. 120-121
    13. Advertisement; The Whistling Swans by Patricia Sheppard, p. 122
    14. Waiting for My Life; Elegy by Linda Pastan, pp. 123-124
    15. Anna's Song by James Reiss, pp. 125-126
    16. Dreaming of Deafness by Robert Pinsky, pp. 127-128
    17. [+]
      Schoenberg, Rosen and the Common Listener by William H. Youngren, pp. 129-140 - 1 Review
      1. Arnold Schoenberg by Charles Rosen
    18. American Composition Now by Robert S. Clark, pp. 141-146
    19. Theatre Chronicle by John Simon, pp. 147-156
    20. The Cake with the Stripper Inside by Marcia B. Siegel, pp. 157-162
    21. American Style and Quality by Charles W. Millard, pp. 163-169
    22. [+]
      Ishmaels All by Dean Flower, pp. 170-177 - 6 Reviews
      1. Prophetic Waters by John D. Seelye
      2. The Adventurous Muse by William C. Spengemann
      3. Nathaniel Hawthorne by Edgar A. Dryden
      4. Young Man Thoreau by Richard Lebeaux
      5. In Time and Place by Floyd C. Watkins
      6. The Unsettling of American by Wendell Berry
    23. [+]
      Fiction Chronicle by Maureen Howard, pp. 178-186 - 7 Reviews
      1. True Confessions by John Gregory Dunne
      2. The Professor of Desire by Philip Roth
      3. Going Blind by Jonathan Penner
      4. The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman by J.P. Donleavy
      5. Carnival by Isak Dinesen
      6. The Ice Age by Margaret Drabble
      7. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
    24. [+]
      I Don't Care What Mama Don't Allow by Marvin Mudrick, pp. 187-195 - 1 Review
      1. The Stories of Kleist by Denys Dyer
    25. Lowell at the End by Denis Donoghue, pp. 196-201
    26. [+]
      The Spirit in Mid-Winter Rises by Robert McDowell, pp. 202-206 - 1 Review
      1. The Snow Poems by A.R. Ammons
    27. [+]
      Poetry Reading by James Finn Cotter, pp. 207-220 - 21 Reviews
      1. A Hive of Souls by James Hazard
      2. One Robe, One Bowl by Ryokan
      3. Chinese Literature, Vol. 2: Nature Poetry by H.C. Chang
      4. A Voice in the Mountain by Peter Davison
      5. The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov by Howard Nemerov
      6. Cumberland Station by Dave Smith
      7. By the Wreakmaster's Cottage by Paula Rankin
      8. The Fuhrer Bunker by W.D. Snodgrass
      9. War Story by Gerald McCarthy
      10. Houseboat Days by John Ashbery
      11. 31 Letters and 13 Dreams~~Thirty-One Letters and Thirteen Dreams by Richard Hugo
      12. This Body Is Made of Camphor and Gopherwood by Robert Bly
      13. Without Music by Michael Palmer
      14. The Ventriloquist: New and Selected Poems by Robert Huff
      15. Eye Level by Jane Shore
      16. Keeping the Night by Peter Everwine
      17. A Place to Stand by Philip Holmes
      18. The Past Now by Arthur Gregor
      19. Stars by C.G. Hanzlicek
      20. Ten Twentieth-Century Indian Poets by R. Parthasarathy
      21. A Season on the Earth: Selected Poems of Nirala by David Rubin and Nirala
    28. [+]
      The New World by Ronald Varney, pp. 221-226 - 1 Review
      1. The Borzoi Anthology of Latin American Literature by Emir Rodriguez Monegal and Thomas Colchie
    29. [+]
      Schumacher's Guide by Francis Flaherty, pp. 227-228 - 1 Review
      1. A Guide for the Perplexed by E.F. Schumacher
    30. [+]
      Post-Modern and After by Guy Davenport, pp. 229-242 - 11 Reviews
      1. The Life of Fiction by Jerome Klinkowitz
      2. Afterjoyce by Robert Martin Adams
      3. The Consciousness of Joyce by Richard Ellmann
      4. James Joyce: The Citizen and the Artist by Charles H. Peake
      5. The Sigla of Finnegans Wake by Roland McHugh
      6. Epic Geography: James Joyce's Ulysses by Michael Seidel
      7. Real and Imagined Worlds by Morroe Berger
      8. The Novel Before the Novel by Arthur Heiserman
      9. The Old and the New: From Don Quixote to Kafka by Marthe Robert
      10. Four Postwar American Novelists by Frank D. McConnell
      11. The Mythopoeic Reality by Mas'ud Zavarzadeh
  2. [+]
    Summer 1978 Issue = 25 Articles
    1. Notes on Contributors, p. 245
    2. Letters to the Editors, pp. 246-248
    3. Facts of Life (memoir) by Maureen Howard, pp. 249-268
    4. The Stone Crab; A Love Poem; Decks; Burchfield's World; Soft and Hard by Robert Phillips, pp. 269-272
    5. Folk Tale; Himself by Daniel Hoffman, pp. 273-274
    6. Love Song After a Nightmare; Book Sale (Five Cents Each) by David Wagoner, pp. 275-276
    7. Near Pamet Marsh by Stephen Sandy, pp. 277-278
    8. Lionel Trilling: The Mind and Its Discontents by David Kubal, pp. 279-295
    9. "So to suspend it" by Hilda Morley, pp. 296-297
    10. Bent Tree; Summer on Green Lake; Last Words at Marblehead by Peter Serchuk, pp. 298-299
    11. Hymn to Aunt Edris by David Ray, pp. 300-301
    12. The Leap by Mark Perlberg, p. 302
    13. Drinking from the Maple Buckets by Joseph Bruchac, pp. 303-304
    14. Hurrying Ends (story) by Jack Marshall, pp. 305-320
    15. The Matisse Cut-Outs by Charles W. Millard, pp. 321-328
    16. The Grotesque in Some Recent Films by Vernon Young, pp. 329-336
    17. [+]
      Croce Recognized by Robert Garis, pp. 337-342 - 1 Review
      1. Afterimages by Arlene Croce
    18. [+]
      The Way We Live Now by Dean Flower, pp. 343-355 - 11 Reviews
      1. Natural Shocks by Richard Stern
      2. Transatlantic Blues by Wilfrid Sheed
      3. The Glittering Prizes by Frederic Raphael
      4. September, September by Shelby Foote
      5. A Way of Life, Like Any Other by Darcy O'Brien
      6. The High Cost of Living by Marge Piercy
      7. Splendid Lives by Penelope Gilliatt
      8. Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
      9. The Human Factor by Graham Greene
      10. The Lady from Boston by Tom McHale
      11. Refiner's Fire by Mark Helprin
    19. [+]
      Issues and Answers; or, If You've Tried It Don't Knock It by Marvin Mudrick, pp. 356-364 - 1 Review
      1. Letters on Literature and Politics, 1912-1972 by Edmund Wilson and Elena Wilson
    20. [+]
      Critical Abstracts by Jonathan Arac, pp. 365-372 - 4 Reviews
      1. The Proud Knowledge by John Holloway
      2. The Advantage of Lyric by Barbara N. Hardy
      3. Wordsworth: Language as Counter-Spirit by Frances Ferguson
      4. The Art of the Real by Eric Homberger
    21. [+]
      Poetry Chronicle by Robert McDowell, pp. 373-382 - 9 Reviews
      1. For Luck: Poems, 1962-1977 by H.L. Van Brunt
      2. Sunlight on the Wall by Bert Meyers
      3. The Poems of Francois Villon by Galway Kinnell and Francois Villon
      4. The Shape of Waters by David Swanger
      5. A Private Signal by Barbara Howes
      6. Images of Kin by Michael S. Harper
      7. Alive and Taking Names by Colette Inez
      8. Bad Boats by Laura Jensen
      9. The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton by Thomas Merton
    22. [+]
      The Spirit of Lo lenga d'oc by Hayden Carruth, pp. 383-386 - 1 Review
      1. Six Troubadour Songs by W.D. Snodgrass
    23. [+]
      The Anne Sexton Show by William H. Pritchard, pp. 387-392 - 1 Review
      1. Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters by Linda Gray Sexton, Lois Ames, and Anne Sexton
    24. [+]
      Disorder and Early Sorrow by Robert Buffington, pp. 393-399 - 1 Review
      1. Collected Poems, 1919-1976 by Allen Tate
    25. To Our Readers, pp. 400-402
  3. [+]
    Autumn 1978 Issue = 18 Articles
    1. The Bennett Award 1978, pp. 401-408
    2. A Reading of The Magic Flute by Jean Starobinski, pp. 409-424
    3. That Could Assuage Us by Hilda Morley, pp. 425-435
    4. The Shadow of the Mountain (story) by Michael McGuire, pp. 436-448
    5. Ghosts LIke Them (story) by Shirley Ann Taggart, pp. 449-462
    6. At the Museum, and After; The Snake; With the Lights On; Two Weeks After an April Frost by Steven Helming, pp. 463-465
    7. [+]
      Three Versions of Faulkner by William Plummer, pp. 466-482 - 3 Reviews
      1. Selected Letters of William Faulkner by Joseph Blotner and William Faulkner
      2. A Loving Gentleman by Meta Carpenter Wilde and Orin Borsten
      3. William Faulkner: Toward Yoknapatawpha and Beyond by Cleanth Brooks
    8. I Look Out; Legend; Circles by Elizabeth Knies, pp. 483-484
    9. Tannhauser and Don Carlos by Robert S. Clark, pp. 485-489
    10. Notes on Contributors, p. 490
    11. [+]
      A Hogshead of Sense by David Bromwich, pp. 491-499 - 1 Review
      1. Samuel Johnson by W. Jackson Bate
    12. [+]
      Declarations of Waugh by Vernon Young, pp. 500-506 - 2 Reviews
      1. The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh by Evelyn Waugh and Michael Davie
      2. Evelyn Waugh and His World by David Pryce-Jones
    13. [+]
      Portnoy's Bachelor Uncle by Marvin Mudrick, pp. 507-516 - 1 Review
      1. Letters to Friends, Family and Editors by Franz Kafka
    14. [+]
      Telling Stories by William H. Prichard, pp. 517-529 - 12 Reviews
      1. Kalki by Gore Vidal
      2. Miracle by Dotson Rader
      3. Shrinking by Alan Lelchuk
      4. Compromising Positions by Susan Isaacs
      5. Burning Questions by Alix Kates Shulman
      6. Violet Clay by Gail Godwin
      7. The Break-Up of Our Camp, and Other Stories by Paul Goodman
      8. Airships by Barry Hannah
      9. Adultery and Other Choices by Andre Dubus
      10. The Middle Parts of Fortune by Frederic Manning
      11. Final Payments by Mary Gordon
      12. Picture Palace by Paul Theroux
    15. [+]
      Fiction Moralized by Dean Flower, pp. 530-535 - 1 Review
      1. On Moral Fiction by John C. Gardner
    16. [+]
      The Experience of the Idea by Samuel Hazo, pp. 536-547 - 15 Reviews
      1. Wife of Light by Diane Ackerman
      2. The Five Stages of Grief by Linda Pastan
      3. Stories that Could Be True by William Stafford
      4. Collected Poems, 1953-1977 by Ernest Sandeen
      5. The Monument by Mark Strand
      6. Paragraphs by Vern Rutsala
      7. Spectral Emanations by John Hollander
      8. The Selected Poems: 1951-1977 by A.R. Ammons
      9. Collected Poems, 1940-1978 by Karl Jay Shapiro
      10. Night Talk, and Other Poems by Richard Pevear
      11. The Difference Between Night and Day by Bin Ramke
      12. Complete Poems of Keith Douglas by Desmond Graham and Keith C. Douglas
      13. Sanskrit Love Poetry by W.S. Merwin and J. Moussaieff Masson
      14. The Epic of Sheik Bedreddin by Nazim Hikmet
      15. Don't Ask Me How the Time Goes By by Jose E. Pacheco
    17. [+]
      James Wright: The Art of Survival by Peter Serchuk, pp. 548-550 - 1 Review
      1. To a Blossoming Pear Tree by James Wright
    18. [+]
      Whispers of the Word by James Finn Cotter, pp. 551-562 - 1 Review
      1. Unassigned Frequencies by Laurence Lieberman
  4. [+]
    Winter 1978 Issue = 22 Articles
    1. Letter to the Editors, p. 564
    2. Bennett Award Acceptance Speech, 1978 by Andrei Sinyavsky, pp. 565-570
    3. The Art of Dreaming by Bert O. States, pp. 571-586
    4. Weather-Bound; Poverty; Sunday at McDonald's; Density; Vehicle; Response by A.R. Ammons, pp. 587-590
    5. The White Holster; Raw Light, Mountain Lake; In the Yard, Late Summer by Dave Smith, pp. 591-595
    6. The Family (story) by Derwent May, pp. 596-604
    7. Translations from Yun Shou-p'ing by Jonathan Chaves and Yun Shou-p'ing, pp. 605-608
    8. Sketching Hannah (story) by David Huddle, pp. 609-617
    9. Beginning the World; Tanya; Illimitable Kingdom by Jay Parini, pp. 618-620
    10. From Conversations with Isaac Bashevis Singer by Richard Burgin, pp. 621-630
    11. Ars Poetica I: Beginning by Douglass Parker, pp. 631-634
    12. Going Back There by George Hitchcock, pp. 635-636
    13. The Later Monet by Charles W. Millard, pp. 637-643
    14. Panov: The Making of a Myth by Marcia B. Siegel, pp. 644-648
    15. [+]
      Father Knows Best by Marvin Mudrick, pp. 649-662 - 2 Reviews
      1. Tolstoy's Letters: Volume I, 1828-1879 by R.F. Christian and Leo Tolstoy
      2. Tolstoy's Letters: Volume II, 1880-1910 by R.F. Christian and Leo Tolstoy
    16. [+]
      Necessities of Memory by Patricia Meyer Spacks, pp. 663-676 - 8 Reviews
      1. Shosha by Isaac Bashevis Singer
      2. The Changeling by Joy Williams
      3. The Eighth Sin by Stefan Kanfer
      4. La Belle Edmee by Suzanne Prou
      5. Time in Its Flight by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
      6. A Woman of Independent Means by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
      7. The Left-Handed Woman by Peter Handke
      8. Selected Stories by V.S. Pritchett
    17. [+]
      Poetry Chronicle: First, Second and Third Person---Singualr by Vernon Young, pp. 677-692 - 16 Reviews
      1. The English Auden by Edward Mendelson and W.H. Auden
      2. Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke
      3. Selected Poems by Luis Cernuda
      4. Collected Poems by Basil Bunting
      5. Selected Poems by Rodney Hall
      6. The Shaft by Charles Tomlinson
      7. Selected Poems, 1951-1974 by Charles Tomlinson
      8. Selected Poems by Zbigniew Herbert
      9. The New Polish Poetry by Milne Holton and Paul Vangelisti
      10. Treasury of American Poetry by Nancy Sullivan
      11. Hello, Darkness by L.E. Sissman and Peter Davison
      12. The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich
      13. The Moonlit Upper Deckerina by Naomi Lazard
      14. Ordinances by Naomi Lazard
      15. The Retrieval System by Maxine Kumin
      16. There Is No Balm in Birmingham by Ann Deagon
    18. [+]
      Lorca, Guillen, Salinas, and Aleixandre by Edmund L. King, pp. 693-703 - 5 Reviews
      1. The Lost Grove by Rafael Alberti
      2. Songs by Federico Garcia Lorca and Daniel Eisenberg
      3. Cantico: A Selection by Jorge Guillen and Norman Thomas Di Giovanni
      4. My Voice Because of You by Pedro Salinas
      5. Twenty Poems by Vicente Aleixandre
    19. [+]
      Grandfather Dictionary by Gary Davenport, pp. 704-707 - 1 Review
      1. Caught in the Web of Words by K.M. Elisabeth Murray
    20. Notes on Contributors, p. 708
    21. [+]
      The Primacy of Printing by Leslie George Katz, pp. 709-715 - 2 Reviews
      1. The Printed Book in America by Joseph Blumenthal
      2. American Book Design and William Morris by Susan Otis Thompson
    22. Index to Volume XXXI, pp. 716-722
10. [+]
  Issues of 1979 = 4 Issues, 84 Articles
[+]
Issues of the 1980s = 10 Years, 39 Issues, 875 Articles
1. [+]
  Issues of 1980 = 4 Issues, 80 Articles
2. [+]
  Issues of 1981 = 4 Issues, 89 Articles
3. [+]
  Issues of 1982 = 4 Issues, 92 Articles
4. [+]
  Issues of 1983 = 4 Issues, 92 Articles
5. [+]
  Issues of 1984 = 4 Issues, 92 Articles
6. [+]
  Issues of 1985 = 3 Issues, 66 Articles
7. [+]
  Issues of 1986 = 4 Issues, 93 Articles
8. [+]
  Issues of 1987 = 4 Issues, 90 Articles
9. [+]
  Issues of 1988 = 4 Issues, 91 Articles
10. [+]
  Issues of 1989 = 4 Issues, 90 Articles
[+]
Issues of the 1990s = 10 Years, 39 Issues, 910 Articles
1. [+]
  Issues of 1990 = 3 Issues, 61 Articles
2. [+]
  Issues of 1991 = 4 Issues, 78 Articles
3. [+]
  Issues of 1992 = 4 Issues, 83 Articles
4. [+]
  Issues of 1993 = 4 Issues, 93 Articles
5. [+]
  Issues of 1994 = 4 Issues, 94 Articles
6. [+]
  Issues of 1995 = 4 Issues, 92 Articles
7. [+]
  Issues of 1996 = 4 Issues, 91 Articles
8. [+]
  Issues of 1997 = 4 Issues, 103 Articles
9. [+]
  Issues of 1998 = 4 Issues, 107 Articles
10. [+]
  Issues of 1999 = 4 Issues, 108 Articles
[+]
Issues of the 2000s = 1 Year, 1 Issue, 25 Articles
1. [+]
  Issues of 2000 = 1 Issue, 25 Articles