“Basking in Hell,” Redux

Nearly 20 years ago, at a time when I was deeply immersed in the work of William H. Gass, I wrote a long essay about his landmark 1995 novel “The Tunnel,” prompted by the release of the 45-hour audiobook read by Gass himself. I was grateful to the indie lit blog that published it.

Last month, I was at a small gathering held to celebrate Dalkey Archive Press’s new reissue of the novel. Someone made a generous comment about my long-ago essay, which made me search for it after all these years. Turns out the blog had run its course and was no longer. I reached out to Chad Post — Open Letter Books director and Dalkey editorial curator — and said I’d welcome the chance to have this republished somewhere, if only to nudge a few more readers closer to the book. Chad said he’d love to republish it on the “Mining the Dalkey Archive” blog he runs on Substack.

So with that pleasant turn of events, I’m happy to share this fresh link here: “Basking in Hell: Returning to William H. Gass’s ‘The Tunnel.’”