Includes bibliographical references (p. [171]-179) and index.
Contents
Part 1 Speaking for : race -- The smoke and safety-valve of "Powerhouse" -- Delta wedding: a celebration of a "horrible world" -- Part 2 The power of language : lies and reality -- The robber bridegroom : a fiction of lies -- In defense of lies: "The wide net" -- A hilarious destruction : the glory of The ponder heart -- Part 3 Transforming the genre : the reader -- The mystery of the narratee in "Old Mr. Marblehall" -- "Everybody to their own visioning" : connection through dispersion in The golden apples -- Part 4 "Everything and nothing" : the author -- Sideshadows of life : The Bride of the Innisfallen and other stories and "other" stories -- Voices and aphasia in "The demonstrators" -- The authorial retreat in Losing battles and The optimist's daughter.