Note 62 — Chapter XII · Ulysses’ Companions: Robert McAlmon, Ben Hecht, William Carlos Williams
Reading edition
The advent of “flamboyant” will be found in the books of Messrs. Carl van Vechten, Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway who take their revenge on dullness with firecrackers, bull fights and champagne. Out of the gloom of realistic fiction the sun rises beyond the horizon of the “village pump” through the pages of “Firecrackers,” “The Great Gatsby,” and Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises.” The return to art for art’s sake may free the American novel from the shackles of pessimism. Let us hope so.