Choice 评论

Joining several recent books on the life and works of Angela Carter (1940-92)--e.g., eponymous works by Linden Peach (CH, Jul'98, 35-6104) and Alison Lee (CH, Dec'97, 35-1986) and Lindsey Tucker's edited volume Critical Essays on Angela Carter (CH, Dec'99, 37-2008)--this book reveals Carter as a figure standing on the border of several identities but never settling comfortably into any one of them. Gamble (Univ. of Wales, Swansea) is interested in the ways in which Carter's work moves between fact and fiction, and she makes effective use of a chronological organization. The first chapter examines both Carter's ambiguous national identity and the emergence of a post-WW II Britain that longs for a homogenous imperial past while facing a heterogeneous and uncertain future. The next two chapters carry that uncertainty into the 1960s, which, in Carter's fiction, is a decade of increasing amoral egoistic consumerism culminating in disillusionment (as reflected in her novels of the period). Chapters 4 and 5 cover the 1970s, dealing with Carter's flight to Japan and her increasingly self-referential style. The final chapter presents Carter's critique of Thatcherite Britain. This is an admirable combination of biographical, historical, and literary analyses. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. H. E. Osborne Queen's University