Where would I be ...

... without Dave Lull? Dave sends me a link to Jeff Bryant's Larry King Freyed over at the Syntax of Things, as well as one to this piece in which Richard Rodriguez tells of his Disappointment.
"Though John Steinbeck was not, in my opinion," Rodriguez begins, "the best California writer of the last century, The Grapes of Wrath remains California’s greatest novel." Well. Steinbeck is awfully good, judged solely on the quality of his writing. Open any one of his books and just observe how skillful the prose is. I'll be interested to see who Rodriguez thinks is California's greatest writer -- judged solely in terms of the quality of the writing.