A collection of essays by distinguished novelist, poet and critic Robert Kroetsch. In this collection Kroetsch dwells on the silence, the violence, and the erotics of writers as different as Sinclair Ross and Malcolm Lowry, Margaret Lawrence and Michael Ondaatje, Alice Munro and Willa Cather. The essays are extremely varied, and are characterized by an informal voice. This volume will be of interest to students of literature as well as the general reader.