Living in the Maniototo

by Janet Frame

Book Overview

Welcome to the comical, ironical, and multiple worlds of one Violet Pansy Proudlock (a ventriloquist), who is also known as Alice Thumb (a gossip and secret sharer of limited imaginings) and, at other... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807609587
• ISBN13: 9780807609583
• Release Date: May 1980
• Publisher: George Braziller
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Postmodern masterpiece

In this highly inventive novel, Janet Frame weaves reality, fiction and dreams into an ornate and profound novel . Mavis Halleton, the heroine, is a woman of some fortitude and no small independence who manages to survive writer's block and widowhood as she makes her way from New Zealand to Berkeley, where friends of hers have agreed to let her live in their house while they are away on vacation. The opportunity to live rent-free in a quiet house for a few months while she finishes her novel turns into something more than she anticipated, however, when her friends die in an earthquake and leave behind a will turning everything over to her. Themes from Dante's Divine Comedy provide an interesting parallel to this outstanding postmodern novel, winner of numerous literary awards, this novel yields new facets of understanding with each re-reading.