Interplay: A Kind Of Commonplace Book

A "commonplace book," must, by its very nature, be unique, a mixture of personal, critical, playful, and profound musings. In Interplay, the noted critic and poet D. J. Enright has arranged and expanded his jottings, thoughts, observations, and impressions from over the years, resulting in a moving, lucid, and inviting mixture of autobiography and commentary. Much of what Enright shares concerns literary eccentricities; the reductiveness of current fiction; reflections on modern biography; the necessity and impossibility of censorship; irony and sentimentality; treason among intellectuals; linguistic hanky-panky; literary theory and practice; as well as his poetry. Interspersed are interesting asides on Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud, Barthes; theology; racial stereotypes; ars erotica; Chinese and Japanese thought; politics and business integrity; dreams in life and literature. Enright brings his inimitable style and moods—sad, humorous, ironic—and his humanism, making life and literature inseparable. This book is full of wit, insight, and intriguing miscellany, serving as an eclectic self-portrait of a leading literary mind and a reflection of modern life.