Party of Animals never appeared, and Brodkey has since changed publishers. Stories in an Almost Classical Mode is a huge collection of a quarter-century's work: 18 stories, some as long as novellas, some of them apparently pieces of the novel that has been in the works for a very long time and, according to The New York Times, was once delivered to his publisher in 2,000 manuscript pages. This is an achievement of a sort, but it is not Brodkey's highest achievement, which, as the current book attests, is real and genuine - and very high indeed. Most of the controversy, curiously enough, does not center on Brodkey's published work but on the claims to greatness made (by the author and others) for his still unpublished novel, the famous-for-being-famous Party of Animals. Of course, plenty has been said already, much of it unusually intemperate.
Great courage, you could even say, which is always a battle, often a terrible battle, against its opposite.
WHATEVER ELSE might be said about the author of this in every way extraordinary book, it ought to be gratefully, humbly acknowledged that Harold Brodkey has courage.
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