{"id":927,"date":"2011-10-02T03:00:13","date_gmt":"2011-10-01T21:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/?p=927"},"modified":"2011-10-02T03:00:13","modified_gmt":"2011-10-01T21:00:13","slug":"pete-dexter-in-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/10\/02\/pete-dexter-in-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Dexter in the New York Times!"},"content":{"rendered":"

So it’s a good day when you stumble upon a book review of a Jim Harrison novel written by none other than one of our best living novelists, Pete Dexter, here:
\nhttp:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/10\/02\/books\/review\/the-great-leader-by-jim-harrison-book-review.html?ref=books&pagewanted=all
\nMy favorite paragraph, about fiction: “Put together, these things serve (to borrow a phrase from \u201cThe Great Leader\u201d) to percolate Sunderson\u2019s brain. That is, to entertain it, which is one of the two possible reasons to write, or for that matter read. To enlighten and to entertain: what else is there? And while good books \u2014 even so-so books \u2014 serve both functions, if you ever have to choose one over the other, keep in mind that a book that entertains without enlightening can still be a guilty pleasure, but a book that enlightens without entertaining is algebra.”
\nDexter is a both an entertaining writer and one who burns a scar of recognition across your brain. His best novels are Deadwood<\/em> (1986) and Paris Trout<\/em> (1988), while\u00a0The Paperboy<\/em> (1995) is underrated. Last year’s Spooner<\/em> is a sprawling knockout, like three novels in one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So it’s a good day when you stumble upon a book review of a Jim Harrison novel written by none other than one of our best living novelists, Pete Dexter, here: http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/10\/02\/books\/review\/the-great-leader-by-jim-harrison-book-review.html?ref=books&pagewanted=all My favorite paragraph, about fiction: “Put together, these … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,29,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-the-west","category-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t