E.L. Doctorow, R.I.P., and Vance Bourjaily

I tried to respond on sff.net's Obituary column to the announcement of Doctorow's death, but was reminded that I do not have posting priveleges at that august venue.  So here:

RAGTIME was "The" Great American Novel of my generation -- in grad school inthe seventies.  Still a lovely kitchen sink of a book.  I read it in the IowaWriters Workshop in a class taught by Vance Bourjaily -- both of them "obscureAmerican novelists of the late 20th century" now.  Both of them poetic energeticnovelists not afraid of huge themes.I guess the best any of us (temporarily popular novelists) can expect from posterityis an elegaic remembrance in some obscure venue.  Better to have lived in lustthan never have lusted at all.

Joe