The Review of Contemporary Fiction

“Too Good to Be True”: The Life and Work of Leslie Fiedler, by Mark Royden Winchell
reviewed by Steven G. Kellman

Untitled document

Mark Royden Winchell. “Too Good to Be True”: The Life and Work of Leslie Fiedler. Univ. of Missouri Press, 2002. 366 pp. $39.95.

Asked to name the most influential American literary critic of the past half-century, one could reasonably reply: “Leslie Fiedler, alas.” Fiedler, because of his trenchant, prolific, innovative work in American studies, feminist criticism, science fiction, queer theory, ethnic literature, and popular culture. Alas, because Fiedler the young gadfly was an irritant and, still feisty in his eighties, now seems to some an embarrassment. He described himself as having gone from “the status of enfant terrible to that of ‘dirty old man’ without passing through a decent maturity.” Mark Royden Winchell, author of a book on Donald Davidson, characterizes Fiedler, the first to apply the term “postmodern” to literature, as the sorcerer’s apprentice, an innocent who summoned up forces that have since flooded the culture. Winchell conceives Fiedler’s career as the arc of four overlapping identities: postwar Jewish intellectual, pioneering myth-critic, interpreter of Americana, and obituarist of the canon and literature. While respectful of Fiedler’s fiction, especially his novellas, Winchell locates his greatest achievement in his works of literary anthropology, especially An End to Innocence, The Return of the Vanishing American, and, particularly, Love and Death in the American Novel. Because Fiedler altered critical discourse as much through his provocative, personal style as his ideas, biography is a crucial—as well as vibrant—way to approach his legacy. Relying on extensive interviews with his subject, Winchell presents a sympathetic portrait of an exuberant outsider who, from perches in Missoula and Buffalo, launched assaults on academic conventions. It was during a Fulbright in Rome that Fiedler, a specialist in the Renaissance, first found himself conscripted as cicerone to his own native literature. Despite minor errata, Winchell is a lively guide to a prodigal lover and professional amateur.


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The Review of Contemporary Fiction “Too Good to Be True”: The Life and Work of Leslie Fiedler, by Mark Royden Winchell reviewed by Steven G. Kellman Untitled document Mark Royden Winchell. “Too Good to Be True”: The Life and Work of Leslie Fiedler. Univ. of Missouri Press, 2002. 366 pp. $39.95. Asked to name the most influential American literary critic of the past half-century, one could reasonably reply: “Leslie Fiedler, alas.” Fiedler, because of his trenchant, prolific, innovative work in American studies, feminist criticism, science fiction, queer theory, ethnic literature, and popular culture. Alas, because Fiedler the young gadfly was an irritant and, still feisty in his eighties, now seems to some an embarrassment. He described himself as having gone from “the status of enfant terrible to that of ‘dirty old man’ without passing through a decent maturity.” Mark Royden Winchell, author of a book on Donald Davidson, characterizes Fiedler, the first to apply the term “postmodern” to literature, as the sorcerer’s apprentice, an innocent who summoned up forces that have since flooded the culture. Winchell conceives Fiedler’s career as the arc of four overlapping identities: postwar Jewish intellectual, pioneering myth-critic, interpreter of Americana, and obituarist of the canon and literature. While respectful of Fiedler’s fiction, especially his novellas, Winchell locates his greatest achievement in his works of literary anthropology, especially An End to Innocence, The Return of the Vanishing American, and, particularly, Love and Death in the American Novel. Because Fiedler altered critical discourse as much through his provocative, personal style as his ideas, biography is a crucial—as well as vibrant—way to approach his legacy. Relying on extensive interviews with his subject, Winchell presents a sympathetic portrait of an exuberant outsider who, from perches in Missoula and Buffalo, launched assaults on academic conventions. It was during a Fulbright in Rome that Fiedler, a specialist in the Renaissance, first found himself conscripted as cicerone to his own native literature. Despite minor errata, Winchell is a lively guide to a prodigal lover and professional amateur.

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