Kathleen Clarke

This book is a fascinating study of the impact of their classical learning on the work of seven important authors in the American canon. From Willa Cather, Scott Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Ellison, Toni Morrison, Philip Roth to Marilynne Robinson the book gives the reader a brief biography of each writer and an overview of existing scholarship on their work, and then looks in detail at the classical influences in each of the three novels chosen for each author. This focus, previously unseen by this reader, has much enriched my understanding of the novels and of the authors, and of their times. Succinct yet covering a broad landscape, I think the book will be a very useful tool for students of the American canon as well as for the interested general reader. K Clarke, an interested general reader