The octogenarian literary critic has no shortage of opinions and literary judgments.  Gass alternates between being clever, witty, brilliantly insightful and amazingly dexterous in his use of English and near perfect in his characterization of writers as varied as Stein, Proust, Porter, and James.   Unfortunately, he can also be very long-winded and dense as a stone which almost led to reading-interruptus.  Not going to join my group of favorite essayists.