Author(s): C K Stead

Fiction

Distinguished novelist and poet, C. K. Stead is also widely respected as a critic whose analytic sophistication is matched by a lively and engaging style. Here he combines most of the important essays in In the Glass Case (AUP, 1981), long out of print, and five from Answering to the Language (AUP, 1989) with nine new essays. These address most of the leading New Zealand literary figures of the last decades of the last century including Allen Curnow, Lauris Edmond, Kendrick Smithyman, Frank Sargeson, Janet Frame (two essays), Ian Wedde, Maurice Gee, and the talented younger writer Elizabeth Knox. The book represents an essential collection of perceptive, often brilliant, readable, opinionated, entertaining comment on a wide range of local writers and writing over a long period and shows in an interesting way the evolution of Stead's critical position. (Preceeding text courtesy www.auckland.ac.nz/aup) Paperback