Robert Kroetsch Summary

Robert Paul Kroetsch, novelist, poet, and critic, is remarkable for his preoccupation with the formal problems of literary expression and for his openness to a range of diverse literary models. His in... Read more

Critical Essay by Paul R. Clarkson ["But We Are Exiles"] is about a young man's flight from the entanglements, pressures, personal relationships and unplanned happening inherent ... Read more

Critical Essay by John Cook Over the past decade Kroetsch has rather quickly established himself as a novelist of significance, but it is as a poet that he has chosen to explore the ancestry of his o... Read more

Critical Essay by Peter Thomas With Field Notes, Robert Kroetsch brings together nine parts of the long and continuing poem of that name. "Stone Hammer Poem," the introductory section, ... Read more

Critical Essay by Arnold Edinborough Robert Kroetsch's But We Are The Exiles [shows no absence of emotional or imaginative structure]. Kroetsch has thought deeply about his characters and his ... Read more

Critical Essay by R.g.g. Price The Words of My Roaring is weird but energetic and readable. A roughneck Alberta undertaker stands in the provincial elections against the long established Member, a do... Read more

Critical Essay by Laurence Ricou [Robert Kroetsch's] novels seem to defy the existential despair characteristic of contemporary prairie fiction both rural and urban. Kroetsch's anti-her... Read more

Critical Essay by Louis K. Mackendrick "The novel of exhaustion," a contemporary literary term with several synonyms, describes fiction whose subject is fiction in the making, the creat... Read more

In the following review, Lernout praises the essays in Gaining Ground. As the title of this book indicates, Canadian literature is slowly becoming recognized in Europe. But one of the editors, Rein... Read more

In the following essay, Lane examines Kroetsch's novels and poetry in order to understand his literary theory, particularly in Labyrinths of Voice. How do we find our way through a textual l... Read more

In the following review, Glover calls The Puppeteer “a literary confection of the first order,” but concedes that it may not be for everyone. I once knew a man in New York who worked ... Read more

In the following review, Wylynko praises The Puppeteer for Kroetsch's examination of the ephemeral and the permanent. Like a pulp fiction murder mystery, Robert Kroetsch’s The Puppete... Read more

In the following interview, Kroetsch discusses his fiction and poetry. The following conversation took place in Hull on 24 October 1993 over a period of two hours. Robert Kroetsch speaks slowly and... Read more

In the following review, Ricou praises Kroetsch's deft use of language in The Puppeteer. Robert Kroetsch’s novels always pause to make you think. They make you think about truth and d... Read more

In the following essay, Campbell argues that Seed Catalogue depends on an organic structure that evokes meaning from its content. My poem Seed Catalogue is about a prairie garden. I actually used t... Read more

In the following review, Creelman praises A Likely Story, although he admits the book contains little new material. For decades post-structuralists and cultural historians have been reminding us th... Read more

In the following essay, Ball examines the place and meaning of silence and voice in Kroetsch’s ‘Out West’ series of novels. From one so concerned with the multiplicitous nature... Read more

In the following essay, Creelman examines Kroetsch's “critical plurality.” I One of the things we seek, I think, is freedom from definition, because definition is as restrictiv... Read more

In the following essay, Wall examines the meaning of Kroetsch's apparently chaotic approach to criticism in What the Crow Said. I think criticism is really a version of story, you see; I thi... Read more