River of Now and Then: Margaret Laurence's The Diviners

Marjorie Retzleff teaches English at Champlain College in Lennoxville,
Quebec.

This 17th monograph in ECW’s Canadian Fiction Studies series possesses
the usual mix of strong and weak points that one has come to expect of
the books in this series.

On the weak side, the “Chronology” section provides only the bare
outlines of Margaret Laurence’s life, while the “Works Cited”
section contains vague annotations and is full of the buzzword
“insightful,” which appears (along with its synonym
“perceptive”) far too often.

On the strong side, Warwick has managed, in the “Importance of the
Work” section, to present a clear and informative synopsis, and, in
the “Critical Reception” section, to cover the basic critical
responses to the novel without getting bogged down in academic pedantry.
The “Reading of the Text” section provides a useful perspective on
the novel’s narrative structure. The remaining sections (except for
the brief and unnecessary summary of the Riel Rebellion) also contain
interesting and pertinent information. The last section of the book, a
discussion of place and its relationship to character, is particularly
satisfying; and a central thesis concerning “the novel’s insistence
upon the impossibility of achieving a single version of anything, and
upon the interpenetration of past, present, and future” is well
articulated and informative. In general, this book will provide a useful
tool for undergraduate students of The Diviners.