ROUND THE BEND

I read with bewilderment David Rieff’s diatribe on Patrick Douglas’ “East Coast/West Coast” (Book Review, Dec. 10). I regard his lame linguistics as a feeble exercise in sophomoric abstractions that obfuscate rather than enlighten the thematics of the literary tome.

“Vindictive corollary”? “Breathy, portentous way”? “Inherent benignity”? “Essentially metaphoric”? “Increasingly polycentric world”? and (I liked this one, though) “Mystical gobbledygook”? His descriptive writing, if that’s what it is, is so deep I came up with the bends after reading it.

STEVEN ROSS

PALM DESERT