Review by Choice Review
Weston knows her Hannah, who is by many accounts a difficult read. In the opening sentence of this sagacious study, the author admits her horror at first reading Hannah because of his treatment of women, but in her examination of the author's postmodernism, she maintains her objectivity throughout. She considers the narrative techniques Hannah uses in handling the themes of initiation, the search for self, war, comedy, and grotesqueness ("interesting monsters"). She contends that his romanticism is macho, his stories are a "promiscuous cool of postmodernism," and his perspective on the Vietnam War parallels the Southern fixation on the War between the States. Some readers may look for a more fully developed discussion of surfiction or metafiction, and they should go to Mark Charney's Barry Hannah (CH, Jul'92), a study that presents a complementary view to Weston's. Weston's six-page bibliography is a good one. Recommended for collections of modern fiction. S. W. Whyte; Montgomery County Community College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
