Description
Book SynopsisWhat is what was combines Richard Stern's fiction and non-fiction work into one miscellany. His essays include philosophy, criticism, reportage and autobiography, all worked within the theme of actuality made and remade in description.
Trade Review"Stern's skill gives vitality to everything he treats." - Edmund White, Los Angeles Times "Stern is incapable of writing an unconsidered, lazy, or hackneyed line." - Peter Straub, New Statesman "His control is extraordinary, his fastball is devastating, nobody walks, nobody steals a base." - Saul Bellow "Stern is a fine novelist and more than a little bit of the classical model of the American crackpot. In his essays he is doing all kinds of interesting things, often most seriously when he is most off the wall. And best of all, he knows what he's doing, and if you will listen, he will tell you, too.... You would be right to read him as you read Montaigne." - George Garrett, Sewanee Review
