This study analyzes all of Clark's fiction including her most recent, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, and places her fiction in the context of its genre. For ease of use by the reader, each chapter is devoted to a single novel and is subdivided into sections on narrative strategies (plot, time, and setting), thematic development, character development, and alternative perspectives on the novel. This study helps the reader to understand the deeper and...

Anne Rice's fame rests on her supernatural tales, but she is far more than a horror novelist. She goes beyond the genre by changing the classic horror stories into myths, fairy tales, and nightmares in order to explore philosophical questions of life, death, evil, and the meaning of existence. This is the most up-to-date analysis of her work and includes individual chapters on each of her vampire, mummy, and witch novels, including Memnoch the Devil...

One of the most prolific and popular contemporary novelists, Dean Koontz has captivated both young and mature readers alike. This critical companion examines his mature fiction, including his most popular recent novels, Watchers, Lightning, and Dark Rivers of the Heart. Its intention is to provide both conventional and alternative readings so that students and readers who love Koontz's fiction can develop their critical skills. Other novels examined...

Until now, popular novelist James Clavell has not been recognized for his literary achievements and his contributions to cross-cultural understanding. This critical study seeks to rectify that omission. It shows how Clavell's depiction of cross-cultural encounters of Westerners with the Far East paves the way for modern multicultural studies. His novels about culture clash help Western readers see with Eastern eyes by taking them into the minds and...

Like Arthur Conan Doyle before him, best-selling novelist Robin Cook has turned from the practice of medicine to that of writing popular suspense fiction. Widely recognized as the "Master of the Medical Thriller," Cook uses the medium of the popular novel to address a range of social issues: environmental pollution, gender inequality in the workplace, the risks inherent in the common practice of secrecy in science research, and above all, the ramifications...

Edgar Award-winning writer Tony Hillerman has earned a reputation as a Grand Master of the popular mystery. This is the first full-length examination of his work. One of the most successful contemporary American writers, Hillerman has made his stories of Native American detectives instrumental to understanding modern American life. Through the creation of his Navajo detective characters and his treatment of the problems of order and identity in modern...

This is the first full-length study to include Vidal's most recent novels and the first designed to meet the needs of the general reader as well as students of contemporary literature. It includes discussions of Lincoln, Empire, Hollywood, and Live from Golgotha, as well as his earlier novels. Baker and Gibson show that while Vidal's novels are tremendously entertaining, they are also serious examinations of a recurring theme - the decline of the...

There's more than meets the eye in the fiction of the master of the espionage thriller, Robert Ludlum. In a study that examines in depth seventeen of Ludlum's novels, including the latest, The Apocalypse Watch (1995), Macdonald uncovers the serious themes running through the novels: the role of the individual in preserving democracy, the value of competing voices, the failure of educational institutions to preserve ideals, the temptations of power,...

A biographical chapter is enriched by an exclusive interview granted by Angelou, and a chapter on genre discusses Angelou's work in the context of the tradition of American and African American autobiography. A chapter is devoted to each of the five volumes of her serial autobiography - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin and Swingin and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976). The Heart of a Woman (1981),...