Word: engels
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...Engel began Fish eight years ago, after a long, false start on another novel. As the time since the publication of his last book grew longer, he had decided merely to get started on something--a move contrary to the advice he's distributed over the years. "I did what I tell students not to do," he says. "I jumped in before I really knew what I was doing." But the pieces came together about a year ago, an event Engel remembers with a combination of elation and relief. "One of the great moments for me in recent years...
...Engel writes in a dense, sinewy prose, an elegant and complicated architecture that is never overly complex for the narrator. From the wonderful opening sentence--an artful ramble redolent of neurosis--to Fish's oddly inspirational conclusion, Engel works with remarkable control. He tells us enough about the characters, but does not burden us with more than what Harry Karp would wish to say. He savors details but doesn't fawn on them...
...words meander the way people think; Engel does not edit Fish's mind too closely, so the prose is often demanding. Consider the following passage, Fish's reflections after he has described the various "zones" that make up Harvard Square: "I pause hard at the corner then, considering whether to cross over or turn back, aware already even here in the borderland between the two zones of a taint in the air of unclear appetite, of relentless and unfocused inclination to consumption...
Despite the potentially disruptive presence of repeated flashbacks, Fish moves with assurance and gather a subtle momentum. Part of Engel's confidence with the subject may come from familiarity--with the people, and also the locales. The bulk of the novel takes place in Cambridge, and the evocation of the Square and its ambience is one of the book's chief pleasures. Engel is a fierce Cambridge partisan and a familiar figure strolling its streets in the evening. He writes of Harvard Square as he would a favorite tattered piece of clothing, with an affectionate and knowing...
Talking now in his study, frequently interrupted by friends' congratulatory phone calls about the book, Engel offers broad but cautious hints of his newest project. For the first time in his career, Engel may deal with his characters' politics--a significant part of Engel's life but not thus far of his writing. It may even include students, but he's not saying for sure. Engel brightens perceptibly when the subject of his writing comes up; he doesn't really talk much about the work, yet he seems comfortable in its atmosphere, relaxed in the familiar grip of his profession...