William Gaddis

William Gaddis was an American writer. He only wrote 5 novels; however won the National Book Award for Fiction for 2 of them, J R and A Frolic of His Own. He is one of the great love-hate figures in American literature for his sardonic social criticism and avante-garde style and plots in his novels. His novels often featured digression combined with multiple layers of symbolism. Many praised his novels for never caving under weight of such complexity, others criticised for verring into incomprehensibiliy. Despite the emotions he invoked he was often overlooked from commercial standpoint; when he passed away salon.com published an article called Neglected Master. Before he ventured into writing novels, he was a fact checker at the New Yorker.