I still remember the first time I read Bernhard––before, I think, he really hit among American writers of my generation and younger but well after he’d been discovered here (it’s funny that people worship Bernhard and think Updike fusty when Updike was one of Bernhard’s early advocates). He’s one of those writers I loved immediately and had to tear myself away from because his influence is terrible; the temptation to imitate his wrath and scorn and his affectations of moral superiority is great indeed, and many writers across the world have fallen and continue to fall victim to it.
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