Andrea Barrett Critical Essay | Critical Review by D. J. Taylor

Critical Review by D. J. Taylor

SOURCE: “Grace under Pressure,” in Spectator, December 9, 2000, p. 44.

In the following positive review, Taylor compliments Barrett's psychological insight in The Middle Kingdom.

Although there is no information to this effect anywhere on its jacket, The Middle Kingdom is not a new book. First published as far back as 1991 in the USA, it follows close on the heels of The Voyage of the Narwhal (1999) and the short story collection Ship Fever—another reissue, as it turned out—which appeared at the very end of last year. The former propelled Miss Barrett if not into fiction's international premier league, then towards the upper end of its first division. In its wake, her publishers have quite reasonably set about milking the back catalogue.

The Voyage of the Narwhal was about 19th-century polar exploration. Ship Fever, though its title story recreated the early Victorian Irish emigrations westward, ranged through various historical...
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