The book was first published in 1971.
John Gardner has died.
For some reason I began seeing several suggestions for this book in
different magazines and newspapers so I gave it a go.

Very interesting. A rather short, fast read.

Grendel is the monster from "Beowolf".
This book "Grendel" is written from Grendel's perspective on things.

It's actually a study in evil....and I thought it very effective.
You know how the Western world has been caught in a exististential
funk since WW2. It's been devastating....it's ripped people's guts
out....
literally in the case of abortion.

What one finds scary is how sympathetic Grendel becomes...heck I
think like
that at times. Grendel tears people to pieces and swallows down the
chunks.

Then , even as Grendel meets his fate and the truth of things begins
to dawn upon him,
so to do you find your own footing.

"Shadowland" yahoo.com> wrote in message news:1175202296.846912.239430@y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...

Shadowland writes:

Motorcycle accident in 1982 near his hometown of Binghamton, NY on
wet roads. He taught at SUNY Binghamtom. He was not quite 50. Sad.
He had written a brilliant biography of Geoffrey Chaucer,
too. Another frequent poster here, no longer living and affectionaly
known as Boom-Boom, said she had read and re-read Gardner's biography
so often that her book binding came apart.

On Mar 29, 2:04 pm, "Shadowland" yahoo.com> wrote: