From: "Erica VD Ginter" <eginter at klgai.com> To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> Subject: [WSFA] Re: Woo woo Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 20:20:08 -0500 Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net> Ooooo, Publisher's Weekly--you've hit the big time, my dear! -----Original Message----- From: Michael Walsh [mailto:MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu] Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 7:42 PM To: wsfalist at keithlynch.net Subject: [WSFA] Woo woo This was missent to Keith, bit that's ok, since I have more URLS: http://www.locusmag.com/2002/Reviews/VanderMeer11.html http://publishersweekly.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleI= d=CA256982 & this from the 11/11 PW Daily: (Not online as far as I can tell, hence no URL, sorry about that . . .) ----------------------------------------------------------- An Appreciation of Edward Whittemore: Lost Master of Magic Realism This evening at New York City's Gotham Bookstore, Old Earth Books, Baltimore, Md., officially unveils its reprints of all five Edward Whittemore novels. Jeff VanderMeer, a World Fantasy Award winner whose latest fiction, City of Saints & Madmen (Cosmos Books), received a starred review in Publishers Weekly, contributed these thoughts to PW Daily on the underappreciated Whittemore: I first encountered Edward Whittemore's fiction in 1985, while still in high school. I had a habit in those days of reading the spine of every book in every used bookstore. Usually, this completist approach yielded little in the way of exotica, but one day, in the oldest used bookstore in town, I came across a battered paperback with the title Jerusalem Poker. If not for that title, I might have passed it by. To my teenage imagination, that title meant something important, something different. I pulled the book out, and the cover intrigued me enough to read the description on the back cover. A 20-year poker game for control of the holy city. A man who might or might not be 3,000 years old. I knew I had found something amazing. I bought the book, took it home, devoured it and was never the same again. Over time, I managed to acquire all five novels, each a revelation in and of itself. These novels--the stand-alone Quin's Shanghai Circus (1974) and the Jerusalem Quartet, Sinai Tapestry (1977), Jerusalem Poker (1978), Nile Shadows (1983), and Jericho Mosaic (1987)--constitute an alternate canon of great 20th century fiction. Most of the novels have been out of print for more than 20 years. While writers like Thomas Pynchon leveraged critical acclaim into worldwide fame, Whittemore, whose books received similar attention when published and whose talent surely deserved the same treatment, never quite made it to the same level. Like Pynchon, Whittemore, an ex-CIA agent who died in 1995, reconfigured history and time while creating larger-than-life characters. He detailed conspiracies that were cosmic and profound, but did not destabilize the novels they inhabited. Whittemore's novels are entertaining but also deep--you can enjoy them for their tall tales, their amazing characters, or for the absurdist humor that illuminates them. But you can also read them for a deep understanding of the Middle East and for a unique wisdom about the human condition. Especially given the current political situation, Whittemore's novels could not be more relevant. His character Stern, a peacemaker who becomes a gunrunner, perfectly sums up the paradoxes and the tragedies of the Middle East. In Sinai Tapestry, the profane humor of his revelation that a madman wrote the Bible is twinned to a description of a 23-volume set of books on Levantine sex. In perhaps his most amazing novel, Jerusalem Poker, Whittemore details a 20-year poker game between a Jew, a Moslem and a Christian for control of the Holy City, the plot spanning generations. Yet in his last book, Jericho Mosaic, the pleasures become more personal. The novel contains the most haunting portrait of a secret agent in deep cover ever set down in print It would be easy for readers to dismiss such comments as hyperbole, if not for the fact that so many different people have similar reactions to his work. Comments at Amazon.com and elsewhere for the out-of-print editions speak of how the book changed readers' lives, of how they could not get the characters out of their heads. From authors like John Nichols to such prominent editors and anthologists as Ellen Datlow, Whittemore remains a touchstone for originality and genius-level writing. Publishers Weekly itself called Nile Shadows "one of the most complex and ambitious espionage stories ever written." A Village Voice article on the Jerusalem Quartet writtenafter = the books had gone out of print compared his work to that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, particularly One Hundred Years of Solitude. Among lovers of magic realism, the books are revered--for their fantastical sense of history and their careful absurdities. As the award-winning author Jonathan Carroll has written, "[Whittemore was] one of the great masters of magic realism. Tom Robbins? John Irving? Even God Vonnegut? Forget them. Read Edward Whittemore." I have read Whittemore's books many, many times. Each time, I have found something different in them, and they have never disappointed me. For the past 17 years, I have also scoured used bookstores for Whittemore's novels, so I could send copies to my friends. I have written about the books multiple times for many different venues, always hoping they would eventually be back in print. So it is with a kind of profound relief, as well as pleasure, that I finally hold the handsome Old Earth editions in my hands and realize that a new generation of readers will have an opportunity to read these amazing books. The Old Earth editions contain introductions from, respectively, John Nichols, Jay Neugeboren, Lesley Hazleton, Ben Gibberd and Jim Hougan. Each novel also includes the same foreword by Whittemore's literary executor, Tom Wallace (previously Whittemore's editor, then his agent) and an afterword by Judy Karasik (editor of Whittemore's last two novels). Wallace and Karasik must share my sense of relief, even as they feel it more intensely. It is tragic that Whittemore did not live long enough to enjoy this landmark literary event.--Jeff VanderMeer More information is available online at from Old Earth Books at http://www.oldearthbooks.com and The Edward Whittemore Web site - http://www.relax.com.au/%7Eamf47/jerusalemdreaming/ -----------------------------------------------------------