I was also, more fuzzily, thinking about the parallel to his mentions of Judaism (Thursday being an obvious reference for that); thanks for articulating the connection.

I don't know the essays very well, which seems like a serious omission given that in his lifetime he was primarily known for his criticism; can you recommend the ones you are thinking of?

>The thing he is most guilty of is not looking beneath the surface of anything he regarded as alien.

So that I suppose he was most oblivious to what he most often warned other people about: his stories constantly assert not taking the apparently logical explanation for things.

I see what you mean about the puzzles: he sets the trap, he baits it, and he springs it himself. Though I get more from the stories than that, even with our massively divergent philosophies: it feels like the revelation in the story does sometimes succeed in giving me a leg up on other kinds of revelation.

I'm a formal reader, though, and clever structure is one of my greatest textual pleasures, so I may be overly thankful to anyone who attempts it, whatever their purpose.

Have you read A.M. Klein's The Second Scroll? I was, when I read it, somewhat ecstatic to find a non-Christian puzzle-novel with a spiritual purpose (among other goals).

{rf}