Ah. We'll, I'll take the nutso, passionate proletariat over folks in suites anyday. Glad I was raised amongst the moneyless…more fun!

My family's from Philly and I used to go with those psycho Irish to the Vet to watch the Eagles one awesome Sunday a year. My question is: where do these people you're referencing watch the game? :)

A lovely perl of wisdom.

Not sure why Salinger is obvious? Seymour, an Introduction and Franny and Zooey are at least as good as Catcher and could be argued as much better.

Have you tried Prayer For Owen Meany? It stands toe to toe with Cider House, in my opinion, with a little less drag in the third act.

From what I was told most were the 22 variant making the 17 one all the more incredible. It even looked like a well thumbed manuscript!

My fault, I thought that was a net gain they were discussing, didn't mean to distort the facts.

Thanks, that was cogent and easy to understand (tips hat)

It's actually from Finnegans Wake. As is everything.

Also not sure how pretentious you can be if you're named after a fictional dildo.

Enough of that, then. Here's a story your name leads me to believe you will enjoy: I work at a used book/music/movie store and we had a large Dr Who display by the front. One day this little, studious looking, bespectacled four year old walked up to it, put her finger to her chin and said, "Mother, tell me about this…

But I still don't understand. If you say it and nobody challenges it, it's okay? Who would be the authority regulating that is what I'm asking, I guess. Sorry, I'm fairly business dense.

Portrait was way better, I thought, more self aware, but you're spot on about the two immortals being two more than most achieve. Side note , I was helping set up a Half Price Books in Chicago and the flagship store in Dallas always sends out some amazing collectible for new stores opening up and for this one it was…

How on earth is a corporation netting 6,000,000,000 dollars a goddam nonprofit?

Have you read Point Counter Point? It's almost farce like Waugh but a lot more violent and grim, along with populated by characters based on people he knew. The DH Lawrence character is hilariously annoying.

Harper Lee for me. Loved To Kill A Mockingbird, but when she just spent the next coupla decades churning out confessional Manga, ugh, I couldn't be bothered.

Have you ever read Portrait of the Artist As an Old Man? It's a fairly sad rumination on chasing Catch 22 and other writers whose first works were so mindblowingly good. But, as he often said, most people never write a Catch 22 so…

Try Wonder Boys and really, Yiddish Policeman's Union builds to so much more: it's like the strangest film noir homage wrapped in this slight sheen of eschatological Jewish crazy. Pays off well.

I figured as much from interviews and the Minutemen doc, but it's good to have confirmation. Cheers!

Don't misconstrue either, your thoughts are super on point. Especially about DBT taking on O'Connor through multiple perspectives; I just pictured that technique for Joe Christmas, et al in Light in August. Cheers!