Another of the accusations made against Kosinski was that he used editors because he was not skillful in his use of the English language. Perhaps it is not fair to see Kosinski's novel entirely in the light of that controversy. Nevertheless, it is striking that in his first novel since the controversy Kosinski, who was not known for his spare prose, lack of humor, and aversion to self-conscious experimentation, wrote as if he was straining to outdo James Joyce.

There are numerous precursors to The Hermit of 69th Street in the experimental tradition. The technique of the absurd digression was born in Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy (1759).

Sterne digressed mercilessly to poke fun at the galloping plots of his day and to slow down time to savor the moment. In his fiction, Kosinski focused on incident rather than plot, which he held in low regard...