The narrator/protagonist of the novel, Larry Morgan, is himself a novelist, who shares with us the composition of his stories. Yet, in this latest novel, he has worked with an idea that quite clearly enjoys a recent vogue, art as a subject for art. A popular line of criticism holds that Stegner is a throwback to the past, a realist of the last century, who succeeds without modern subjects and tech niques. If, at seventy-eight, Stegner does not have another big book in him, Crossing to Safety will become a fitting culmination to his career. It’s easily as good as The Spectator Bird, which won a National Book Award, and only a notch or two below Angle of Repose, which won a Pulitzer. 277 pages, $18.95.) Crossing to Safety is an excellent novel, one of Wallace Stegner’s three or four best. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
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