Not long ago, an acquaintance on Twitter asked for recommendations of lesser-read classics, which he defined as “anything published fifty years ago or more.” Unable to resist any occasion for a book recommendation, I began ticking through titles in my head and came, eventually, to John Gardner’s Grendel, a perennial favorite of mine. Scurrying to … Continue reading Grendel at 50: How John Gardner’s Finest Novel Undermines His Ideas About Moral Fiction