White Figure White Ground

by Hugh Hood

Book by Hood, Hugh

246 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

Reviews

[Mark Lisac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Family drama streaked with a touch of the comic here and there, social study of the differences between Montreal and small-town Nova Scotia, and a novel about painting. It's possibly even a literary interpretation of the kind of painting that the main character produces — a surface image made alive by inner tensions, layers, and an abiding sense of unease that seems likely to culminate in something that may or may not be dangerous. Wouldn't say this work ranks alongside, say, the best of David Adams Richards. It also contains an extended sex scene that may not have been advisable. But it does demand that the reader think about how to fill in some unseen spaces. Hood was an enterprising writer whose novels, even nearly 60 years after this, his first one, still outshine those of many contemporary writers and deserve more attention than they now receive.