The Lovely Treachery of Words: Essays Selected and New

by Robert Kroetsch

This collection of essays by a distinguished Canadian novelist, poet, and critic concentrates on the age-old act of storytelling and its significance to individuals and society in Canada. The essays, some never before published, examine such issues as silence, violence, and eroticism in the works of Sinclair Ross, Malcolm Lowry, Margaret Lawrence, Michael Ondaatje, Alice Munro, and Willa Cather. They also deal with the long poem in relation to the uncertainty of the modern storytelling impulse, the criticism of Northrop Frye, the Canadian writer and the American literary tradition, women in Prairie fiction, nationalism and literature, and Canadian literary strategies.

Genres: Essays

216 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 1989

About the author

Robert Kroetsch was a Canadian novelist, poet, and non-fiction writer. He taught for many years at the University of Manitoba. Kroetsch spent multiple years in Vancouver, British Columbia before returning to Winnipeg where he continued to write. In 2004 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Reviews

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

kroestch is unabashedly radical and weird. quintessential postmodern canlit that takes itself incredibly seriously out of necessity. will be a seminal work in my thesis <3

[Maurice Mierau · Rating 2 out of 5]

Does not hold up as well as I thought it would. First time revisiting since the 1980s when I was his student.

[Martymar · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's like post-strucuralism, but from Alberta. brilliant ideas, original prose.