Party of Animals

"Party of Animals" was a rumored novel cycle by American writer Harold Brodkey.

Following the publication of his first collection of short stories in 1958, "First Love and Other Sorrows", Brodkey signed a contract for "Party of Animals" with Random House in 1964. Subsequently, the novel went to Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 1970, and then to Alfred A. Knopf in 1979, before returning to Farrar, Straus in 1990. However, no novel was forthcoming during this period.

Meanwhile, the reputation for the unseen, unread and unpublished work grew apace. Famed editor Gordon Lish called "Party of Animals" "the one necessary American narrative work of this century." ["Newsweek", November 18, 1991.]

Many established and eminent people in American letters, including Susan Sontag, Gordon Lish and Harold Bloom compared Brodkey's already-published writing to Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time". Harold Bloom declared "If he's ever able to solve his publishing problems, he'll be seen as one of the great writers of his day." ["Time", November 25, 1991.]

Brodkey eventually published his first novel, "The Runaway Soul", in 1991 with Farrar, Straus, to generally mixed and negative reviews. Brodkey stated at the time of publication that "The Runaway Soul" represented the "first installment" of "Party of Animals".

However, at the time of Brodkey's death in 1996, no further volumes of the alleged work had been published. Many now believe the the novel cycle was, if not an exaggeration, then an outright hoax.

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