In a Dark Time: The Apocalyptic Temper in the American Novel of the Nuclear Age

Dewey focuses on seven novels that touch the variety of generic experiments and postures of the post-World War 11 American novel. These novels by Vonnegut, Coover, Percy, Pynchon, Gaddis, and DeLillo represent a significant argument concerning the American literary response to living within the oppressive technologies of the Nuclear Age. Departing from other studies that veer toward speculative fiction or toward the more narrowly defined religious angles, In a Dark Time defines the apocalyptic temper as a most traditional literary genre that articulates the anxieties of a community in crisis, a way for that community to respond to the perception of a history gone critical by turning squarely to that history and to find, in that gesture, the way toward a genuine hope.