Interviews with Contemporary Novelists

In a book that will appeal more to scholars than to general readers, 12 contemporary authors discuss the gifts, glory and pain of literature, recent changes in fiction, standards and esthetics, the effect and value of criticism. The book is strongly unified by the presence of a single interviewera Canadian university lecturerwho provides no background information about the novelists, devotes relatively little time and space to their personal lives, and focuses instead on ideas, themes and details of craft. Carlos Fuentes analyzes the centrality of Cervantes, Margaret Drabble the effect of environment on personality, Erica Jong the ""mythology of continuation'' that expands human consciousness, Toni Morrison the influence of paintings rather than literature on her work, Colin Wilson the basic fact that he is of an optimistic, scientific temperament. Vasily Aksyonov, Julio Cortazar, Robertson Davies, Nadine Gordimer, Mary Gordon, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Elie Wiesel are the other writers included. (October 27