Wednesday, August 28, 2024

A Plunket primer

In preparation for next week's discussion of Robert Plunket's 1983 comic novel, My Search for Warren Harding, I went to Wikipedia to look up the author--only to discover that he has no Wikipedia page!

Fortunately, Lee Levine (who nominated the book--thanks!) rode to the rescue, pointing me to this 2023 New Yorker profile: "One of America's funniest, gayest writers is finally becoming famous."

Besides being a hoot to read, that article will give you the essentials about the man and the novel. But if it whets your appetite for more background, here are some additional links:

New York Times: "Taking a late-in-life victory lap, thanks to his novel's "lunatic energy"

Vulture: "Robert Plunket is fine with being rediscovered"

Substack (The Caftan Chronicles): "Robert Plunket's comeback after writing the funniest, gayest novel of all time"

Note: There is also a Paris Review interview with Plunket, but that is the basis of Danzy Senna's foreword in the 40th-anniversary edition of the novel I've suggested we use. However, if you have a different edition (which is perfectly fine) without that introduction, you might want to check out the article.


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