Jeremy's Version — James Purdy

Gore Vidal's 2005 feature profile of James Purdy in the Sunday New York Times Book Review signaled the long overdue arrival of a major literary cult hero into the American canon. Purdy is one of the last surviving, original, post-war pioneers of transgressive fiction -- in line with the Beats, Norman Mailer, Terry Southern, and John Rechy. Jeremy's Vision is the first volume of Purdy's Sleepers in Moon-Crowded Valleys trilogy. It is Purdy's classic novel about a dysfunctional Midwestern family and the struggle between two great dynasties, particularly among the women who rule them.