"Most of Elkin's prose is alive, with its wealth of detail and specifically American metaphors, and the surreal elements in the narrative are tightly controlled," said LJ's reviewer of this odd novel (LJ 6/1/71), which concerns the host and guests of a late-night radio call-in show. Though no doubt tame compared to the daily insanity of the Jerry Springer show, this remains "compulsively readable." Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
A divine exploiter of the idiocies and intricacies of our language. -- John Irving
A hero of American letters, a great artist, a stylist without peer. -- Tim O'Brien
Elkin is one of America's great tragicomic geniuses. -- Robert Coover
In The Dick Gibson Show [Elkin] turns that friend of midnight drivers, the trivial and dreary all-night talk show, into a fast, loud circus of bickering and outrageous consciously Chaucerian tales. . . . It's raw energy that Elkin loves. . . . He's Ahab smashing through the mask with jokes. Grizzly reality is his straight man. -- John Gardner
This is Elkin's third novel and his best--a funny, melancholy, frightening, scabrous, absolutely American compendium that may turn out to be our classics about radio. -- _Joseph McElroy, _New York Times Book Review
Description:
From Library Journal
"Most of Elkin's prose is alive, with its wealth of detail and specifically American metaphors, and the surreal elements in the narrative are tightly controlled," said LJ's reviewer of this odd novel (LJ 6/1/71), which concerns the host and guests of a late-night radio call-in show. Though no doubt tame compared to the daily insanity of the Jerry Springer show, this remains "compulsively readable."
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
A divine exploiter of the idiocies and intricacies of our language. -- John Irving
A hero of American letters, a great artist, a stylist without peer. -- Tim O'Brien
Elkin is one of America's great tragicomic geniuses. -- Robert Coover
In The Dick Gibson Show [Elkin] turns that friend of midnight drivers, the trivial and dreary all-night talk show, into a fast, loud circus of bickering and outrageous consciously Chaucerian tales. . . . It's raw energy that Elkin loves. . . . He's Ahab smashing through the mask with jokes. Grizzly reality is his straight man. -- John Gardner
This is Elkin's third novel and his best--a funny, melancholy, frightening, scabrous, absolutely American compendium that may turn out to be our classics about radio. -- _Joseph McElroy, _New York Times Book Review