Margaret Laurence: The Making of a Writer

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

This book focuses on Margaret Laurence’s early years, from her birth
in 1926 to the acceptance of The Stone Angel, the novel that, when
published in 1964, firmly established her as an important writer of
fiction in both popular and academic circles. But two competent
full-scale biographies have appeared in the last 10 years, and I
couldn’t help wondering whether we needed a third. However, Donez
Xiques is a skilled and determined researcher who has unearthed details
missed by her predecessors, and although these are generally minor in
themselves, they acquire a cumulative impressiveness as the book
proceeds. It is also thoroughly documented, and will need to be
consulted by all serious readers and students.

Yet, that said, I must also register some reservations. I get the
distinct impression that Xiques never quite made up her mind what kind
of book she was trying to write. The subtitle reads “The Making of a
Writer,” but this is interpreted in a general sense by which virtually
every early experience contributes to an author’s development. Such
matters as her responsibilities as wife and mother, and the clash
between her own and her husband’s careers that led to the breakup of
their marriage, are given considerable emphasis. These are, of course,
fully legitimate matters of concern, yet I for one was surprised to find
comparatively little discussion of the technical niceties of writing and
the challenge of mastering the craft of fiction. Xiques is accomplished
as a biographer, but uncertain as a literary critic.

A tighter editorial rein would, I believe, have resulted in a better
book. There are numerous repetitions and chronological wobbles that
should have been smoothed out. There are also some embarrassing errors
(Earle Birney did not write a narrative poem called “Daniel”). Even
more oddly, three little-known short stories (one of them hitherto
unpublished) are reproduced in appendixes—yet two of them are never so
much as mentioned (let alone discussed) in the body of the text.

There is, then, some valuable material here, but the overall effect of
the book is slightly blurred.