Necessary Distance Essays and Criticism

"[V]aluable for the insights it provides into his working-class Chicago upbringing and his love affair with the worlds of ideas and painting. The anecdotes drawn from his stumbling, naive steps toward literary community and comprehension are acutely moving. The reviews portion of the collection offers appreciations of writers as diverse as Donald Barthelme, Claude McKay, Carlos Fuentes, Joyce Carol Oates, and John O'Hara. Criticism is not among Major's strongest suits, but his travel writing on trips to Paris and Yugoslavia gives him ample room to put his astute novelist's powers of observation to winsome use."Major, Clarence is the author of 'Necessary Distance Essays and Criticism', published 2001 under ISBN 9781566891097 and ISBN 1566891094.