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A study of the influences and literary accomplishments of one of America's most beloved storytellers, Garrison Keillor. While acknowledging his career highlights, the book supports Keillor's own view of himself, as a writer rather than a performer.

One of the most popular and prolific writers of our day, Mary Higgins Clark continues to write bestselling, award-winning novels of mystery and suspense, attracting new fans worldwide and thrilling dedicated readers who have followed her career for nearly three decades.

Maxine Hong Kingston's first book, Woman Warrior gained instant popularity and critical success, winning top national literary awards as well as a place on the best seller list.

Anne Tyler's novels strike a deep chord of responsiveness in her readers because her novels bring to life contemporary characters to whom we can instantly relate and in whose experiences we can see mirrored our own.

This study examines 17 of Ludlum's novels, his literary roots, and the themes running through the novels. Each novel is organized into sections on plot and structure, character and theme, and features an alternate critical interpretation, such as Freudian, Marxist or reader response.

A study of the life and literary work of James Herriot. This text considers Herriot's vision of the mutual dependence between all creatures - human and animal - and looks at each of his five major books. Plot development, narrative structure, character development and thematic issues are examined.

Beginning with "Eye of the Needle" in 1978, Ken Follett has pursued a successful and varied fiction-writing career. This study of his work looks at Follett's experimentation with genre, and includes individual examinations of each of his major novels, up to and including "A Place Called Freedom".

Baker and Gibson show that while Vidal's novels are tremendously entertaining, they are also serious examinations of a recurring theme-the decline of the West in general and the decline of the United States in particular. A biographical sketch of the writer precedes a general discussion of Vidal's early novels.

Like Arthur Conan Doyle before him, best-selling novelist Robin Cook has turned from the practice of medicine to that of writing popular suspense fiction.

The study includes never-before-published biographical information, drawing an original interview with John Saul, and a chapter on the history of tales of horror and the supernatural and how these genres have influenced Saul's fiction. Each chapter in this study examines an individual novel.

In a career writing fiction that spans more than 40 years, James A. Michener has refined the art of telling an engrossing story while presenting massive amounts of factual information. His narratives are characterized by an acute sense of place and important themes such as human tolerance, the relationship between human beings and their environment, and the value of human courage and hard work. This study is the first to assess and analyze his fictional work in more than ten years and discusses his recent fiction, as well as his important historical fiction. The work features a biographical chapter, an overview of his fictional works, and close, critical readings of nine of his most noted novels which will be of special interest to students of American history.An opening chapter discusses his life, including his childhood, education, travels, and the path that led him to become a premier storyteller. The overview chapter examines the characteristics of his fiction and general thematic concerns and offers brief consideration of the novels not analyzed in indivual chapters. The remaining eight chapters focus on individual novels: The Fires of Spring, Hawaii, Centennial, Chesapeake, The Covenant, Space, Texas, Alaska, and Miracle in Seville. Each novel is analyzed for plot structure, characterization, and thematic elements. In addition, Severson defines and applies alternative critical perspectives from which to read the novel. A complete, up-to-date bibliography of Michener's fiction and bibliography of reviews and criticism complete the work. This up-to-date critique of Michener's work will supercede the out-of-date works on the public library shelf and will support the secondary school interdisciplinary American history/literature curriculum.

Part II, The Kent Family Chronicles, devotes an individual chapter to each of the novels in this series, The Bastard, The Rebels, The Seekers, The Furies, The Titans, The Warriors, The Lawless, and The Americans.

Although best known for The Thorn Birds, her blockbuster family saga set in her native Australia, Colleen McCullough is a versatile novelist who has written in a variety of genres.

This examination shows how the novels of James Clavell help Western readers to see with Eastern eyes, by taking them into the minds and culture of the Chinese, Japanese and Iranians. It provides textual analysis of his novels showing how they embrace a number of literary genres and traditions.

Howard Fast, one of the most prolific American writers of the 20th century, has enjoyed wide popularity for his writing and suffered from great notoriety for his politics, but has never been given full credit for his contribution to the essential tales of American culture, the American Revolution, and immigrant acculturation.

In spite of tremendous personal adversity, Stephen King continues to reign as perhaps the most popular and prolific writer in America. This reader on him contains a biographical chapter, and chapters examining each of his works with concise plot synopses.

The book offers close scrutiny of three illustrative works: Cat's Eye as the artist novel, The Handmaid's Tale as a dystopian novel, and The Blind Assassin as a villainess novel. This book extends the dialogue surrounding Atwood's work in several important ways.

With the publication of her novel Annie John in 1985, Jamaica Kincaid entered the ranks of the best novelists of her generation.

This is a critical study of Leon Uris, who, in eleven novels, written over four decades, has chronicled the unceasing fight of dedicated individuals against the forces of oppression.

After growing up in Minnesota and graduating from college, Tim O'Brien received a draft notice and joined the war effort in Vietnam. He chronicled his combat experiences in his memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home, and then went on to write the eight novels that are discussed in this volume. The novels reflect their characters' struggle with the effects of place, namely small-town America, in the Vietnam Era.

Morrison describes herself as a black woman novelist, and all her novels deal with African American characters and communities. This is the only book-length study to discuss all of Morrison's novels published to date. This study analyzes in turn each of Morrison's novels.

Julia Alvarez made her mark on the American literary horizon with the 1991 publication of her debut novel How the Garc^D'ia Girls Lost Their Accents, a story based on her own family's bicultural experiences.

Huntley locates the novels in the tradition of the female gothic, which Andrews refashioned into her own brand of gothicism: a blend of the gothic with horror fiction and the fairy tale. Huntley's study of Andrews's novels provides close textual analysis.

A consideration of the literary contribution of Gloria Naylor within the context of the African American narrative traditions, using analysis of her five novels. It shows how she links the trials of her African American characters to the struggles of any human being facing large obstacles.

The Literary Contexts section, devoted to examining issues of genre, influences and themes in Vonnegut's writing, adds to a fuller understanding of the man and his literary works. This exceptionally well-written Critical Companion will help students and interested readers appreciate Vonnegut's most important and popular novels.

This study of the work of novelist Tom Robbins looks at the style and language which characterize his work. In addition to a critique of each of his novels, the work contains biographical material and a full-length bibliography including Robbins' fiction reviews.

In Clancy's eight novels, discussed and analyzed in separate chapters, we see both the emerging hero and the changing author. Garson provides close examination of each of Clancy's eight novels, helping the reader with explication of Clancy's wide-ranging and often difficult subject matter.

The first woman to win the Hugo award (given annually by the World Science Fiction convention) and the Nebula award (given annually by the Science Fiction Writers of America), Anne McCaffrey has invented many worlds of science fiction that have made her work enormously popular.

Introduced with a biographical account of Allende's fascinating life, this critical companion situates the Chilean writer with the Latin American tradition and offers interpretations of her six novels.

A critical study of the work of Mary Higgins Clark who uses the literary genre of mystery and suspense to write popular fiction. This text examines common themes in Clark's work, such as the consequences of crime on innocent victims, and explores her treatment of current social issues.