Novelists with Gay and Lesbian Themes (Critical Survey of Long Fiction)

Novelists With Gay & Lesbian Themes is a single-volume reference that contains selected essays from Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition. Every article in this set was carefully selected by our editors to provide the best information available about the topic covered. The essays in Novelists With Gay & Lesbian Themes discuss such influential writers as James Baldwin, Michael Cunningham, Patricia Highsmith, and Gore Vidal.

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Gr 8 Up-Reproducing selections from its massive 10-volume Critical Survey of Literature, 4th ed. (2010) , Salem has repackaged them into 24 paperbacks on various themes. Each volume features an introductory essay and approximately 22 entries on individual writers. Entries open with a brief discussion of "other literary forms" the author employed, followed by a discussion of "achievements," and then a one to two-page biography. The main body of each entry consists of an analysis of the author's major works that is compellingly written and could easily be employed as a booktalk to introduce readers to a new work. However, the problems that plagued the original set remain. There is an uncomfortable quirkiness to the selection of authors covered. For instance, in Feminist Themes, there is no mention of Toni Morrison, a writer not only of importance as an African American, but also as a novelist who plumbs the depths of the female psyche and women's roles in society. The absence of an entry on Shirley Jackson or Stephen King in Gothic Novelists is similarly odd. Though the books make for delightful browsing, and at times illuminating introductions to some of literature's more important figures, they will be of little use to students in search of academic sources for a research paper. Libraries with access to Gale's Literature Resource Center or EBSCO's Literary Reference Center don't need these works.--Herman Sutter, Saint Agnes Academy, Houston, TXα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. --This text refers to an alternate kindleedition edition. Read more Continue reading Read less