[Frank Sargeson] shows a refined sensitivity of ear and a careful precision in writing, qualities that enhance his ability to portray the society he knows. No biography, however, can show the impact of Sargeson both as a writer and as a man upon New Zealanders. The story of the impact, which this article endeavors to demonstrate, carries with it a moral to all critics, a moral of which Sargeson himself was conscious: one must not allow one's image of a writer to conceal the real writer. (p. 123)

The lasting themes of [Sargeson's] writing are the same as appeared in his earliest stories. One of his recurrent themes is isolation, the lack of communication among people…. [One] may sense, from the reiteration of the phrase "It's difficult to have a talk with my uncle," in the sketch "Conversation With My Uncle," that the reader is being forced to face...