Fiction of Paul Goodman

Paul Goodman's oeuvre spanned fiction, poetry, drama, social criticism, psychoanalytic theory, and literary analysis.

[3] In the late 1930s, after moving to Chicago, Goodman reconsidered his approach to fiction and wrote a dozen works of prose in a style he termed "cubist", in which he abstracted its formal/literary elements as alienated from mere character relations.

[5] Of these stories, "A Ceremonial", received the most critical attention, but Klaus Mann saw serenity where Goodman had intended an alienated tone.

[7] Small presses continued to publish his works, but Goodman was bothered by his self-image as an embattled writer alienated from society, both well-published and unknown at once.

[7] Meanwhile, in his fiction, Goodman's epic novel project The Empire City was an inward-looking satire subtitled "An Almanac of Alienation".

In his short stories, Goodman removed conventional plot, character, and setting as familial essays with his self-styled "cubist" literary emphasis on formal manner.

[11] His late-1940s stories were part of his self-analysis (e.g., free analysis and childhood memories) with fewer formal devices, more openings to the unconscious, and clear analogies of inward searching.

[16] The plot of "relent, remedy" recurs throughout much of the Goodman's remaining fiction ("The Death of Aesculapius", "Bathers at Westover Pond") up through his breakthrough work of social criticism, Growing Up Absurd (1960), which brought the theme into real life.

[16] Goodman said that the book was the action he had wanted for his fictional heroes, the culmination of his therapy, theorizing, alienation, and provocations.

[18] While he was rarely recognized for his fiction, Goodman's work received "respectful reviews and some vociferous admirers", according to Richard Kostelanetz.

His short story collections (The Facts of Life and The Break-up of Our Camp), his novel The State of Nature, and his analytic book Kafka's Prayer each sold poorly.