18. Now, Saul Bellow and Joseph Epstein were friends in the early 1970s, played racketball together.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
19. But Epstein was also friends with a group of intellectuals who Bellow increasingly mocked in his fiction: Kramer and Edward Shils.
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20. Epstein broke with Bellow in late 1970s & decided to get revenge on novelist with a counter-roman-a-clef.
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21. Epstein's 1990 short story "Another Rare Visit With Noah Danzig" is attack on Bellow's habit of putting his friends in fiction.
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22. That Epstein story can be found here: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/another-rare-visit-with-noah-danzig/ …
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23. Esptein's story is in effect a roman a clef on the evils of the roman a clef. A self-contradictory story.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
24. The main character in story is a mixture of Epstein and Kramer. The villain is a world-famous novelist who is obviously Bellow.
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25. Odd thing about Epstein's story is that it undermines the narrator (Epstein/Kramer) as much as it does Bellow.
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26. At the end of the story Epstein/Kramer is completely unhinged by experience of knowing Noah Danzig. Hardly a triumphant revenge.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
27. Way I read Epstein's story is he tried to get revenge on Bellow but while writing it realized it can't be done. Bellow's pen too strong
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28. Kramer and Epstein wrote several harshly critical essays about Bellow, but again nothing powerful enough to exact real blood.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
29. The still unanswered question is whether any of these roman a clefs (Bellow's and Epstein's) will survive as fiction? The End.
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