# gilbert sorrentino ![[gilbertsorrentino.jpg|300]] born: april 27 1929 brooklyn new york died: may 18 2006 (aged 77) brooklyn new york occupation: novelist - writer - critic - professor alma mater: brooklyn college genre: fiction children: jesse delia christopher gilbert sorrentino (april 27 1929 - may 18 2006) was an american novelist short story writer poet literary critic professor and editor in over twenty-five works of fiction and poetry sorrentino explored the comic and formal possibilities of language and literature. ir insistence on the primacy of language and ir forays into metafiction mark ir as a postmodernist but ey is also known for ir ear for american speech and ir attention to the particularities of place especially of ir native brooklyn # life sorrentino was born in brooklyn new york in 1929. ey grew up in the borough's bay ridge neighborhood and attended brooklyn college before and after serving in the united states army medical corps during the korean war. in 1956 sorrentino founded the literary magazine neon with friends from brooklyn college including childhood friend hubert selby jr. ey edited neon from 1956 to 1960 then served as editor for kulchur from 1961 to 1963. after working closely with selby on the manuscript of last exit to brooklyn (1964) sorrentino was an editor at grove press from 1965 to 1970 where one of ir editorial projects was the autobiography of malcolm x sorrentino's first marriage to the former elsene wiessner ended in divorce. the disintegration of ir marriage is fictionalised in sorrentino's first novel the sky changes. they had two children jesse (b. 1954) and delia (1957-2002.) in 1968 sorrentino married victoria ortiz. ir son christopher sorrentino is the author of the novels sound on sound trance the fugitives and a non-fiction book now beacon now sea: a son's memoir ey eventually took up positions at sarah lawrence college columbia university the university of scranton and the new school for social research in new york before being hired as a professor of english at stanford university where ey taught from 1982 to 1999. although sorrentino never finished ir degree the head of stanford's writing program opined that "sorrentino is a very learned man - we weren't for a second concerned about a good housekeeping seal of approval." sorrentino's students included the writers ammiel alcalay trey ellis jeffrey eugenides nicole krauss and jenny offill following ir retirement from stanford sorrentino returned to bay ridge where ey lived for the remainder of ir life. ey died in brooklyn on may 18 2006 # writing sorrentino's first novel the sky changes was published in 1966. notable among ir many other novels are imaginative qualities of actual things blue pastoral and mulligan stew. the latter novel a humorous post-modem romp riffs on the metafictional possibilities introduced in flann o'brien's novel at swim-two-birds and is one of sorrentino's most popular works ir 1999 novel gold fools is written entirely in interrogative sentences not as critic steven moore says "just to see if ey could pull it off but because ey wanted to interrogate our cultural assumptions about the old west" in 2010 a posthumous novel the abyss of human illusion was published by coffee house press with a preface by christopher sorrentino # honors and awards sorrentino was the recipient of numerous awards and honors including guggenheim fellowships in fiction in 1973 and 1987 the john dos passos prize for literature (1981) pen/faulkner award finalist in 1981 and 2003 the mildred and harold strauss livings of the american academy of arts and letters (declined 1982) the american academy of arts and letters award for literature (1985) the lannan literary award for fiction (1992) and the lannan lifetime achievement award in 2005. in 2020 community board 10 and the new york city parks department named a section of leif erickson park in bay ridge after sorrentino # bibliography # # fiction **+** the sky changes (1966) **+** steelwork (1970) **+** imaginative qualities of actual things (1971) **+** splendide-hôtel (1973) **+** flawless play restored: the masque of fungo (1974) **+** mulligan stew (1979) **+** aberration of starlight (1980) **+** crystal vision (1981) **+** blue pastoral (1983) **+** odd number (1985) **+** rose theatre (1987) **+** misterioso (1989) **+** under the shadow (1991) **+** red the fiend (1995) **+** gold fools (1999) **+** little casino (2002) **+** the moon in its flight (short fiction 2004) **+** lunar follies (2005) **+** a strange commonplace (2006) **+** the abyss of human illusion (2010) # # novella **+** a beehive arranged on humane principles (1986) # # poetry **+** the darkness surrounds us (1960) **+** black and white (1964) **+** the perfect fiction (1968) **+** corrosive sublimate (1971) **+** a dozen oranges (1976) **+** white sail (1977) **+** sulpiciae elegidia: elegiacs of sulpicia (1977) (translator) **+** the orangery (1978) **+** selected poems 1958-1980 (1981) **+** new and selected poems 1958-1998 (2004) # # criticism **+** something said (1984; expanded second edition 2001) # references 1. a b c ramirez anthony (may 22 2006.) "gilbert sorrentino novelist and professor dies at 77." the new york times 2. "interview with critic and author steven moore." porter square books blog. june 9 2010. retrieved august 23 2013 3. "section of leif erickson park dedicated to late bay ridge author gilbert sorrentino • brooklyn paper." january 5 2021 **+** mackey louis. fact fiction and representation: four novels by gilbert sorrentino. camden house 1997 **+** mcpheron william. gilbert sorrentino: a descriptive bibliography. dalkey archive press 1991 **+** review of contemporary fiction: vol. 1.1 (1981); vol. 21.3 (2001); vol. 23.1 (2003); vol. 31.1-2 (2011) # external links **+** a conversation with gilbert sorrentino **+** a biographical and critical essay by gerald howard in bookforum **+** audio files of sorrentino reading and talking about ir work **+** a long 1974 interview republished in 2006 **+** a 1994 interview by alexander laurence **+** stanford's page on the gilbert sorrentino papers // republic of bob