William H. Gass’s magnum Opus The Tunnel turns 25 in 2020, and it’s been just over fifty years since parts of the novel began appearing in print in 1969; thus, it may be an appropriate time to reassess Gass’s massive work, which was met with a wide range of reactions when it came out in 1995, from effusive praise to bewilderment to outright hostility.

The primary goal of this project is to direct attention to The Tunnel, which has become one of those great books (no matter how one defines great) which is rarely read. In fact, on April 9, 2020, Lithub.com published a list of “The 50 Best Contemporary Novels over 500 Pages” – “Long Books, Worth Your Time” – and The Tunnel was not among them.