Synopses & Reviews
Harry Gill, a moderately successful writer of historical fiction, has been awarded the annual Watercress-Armstrong Fellowshipa living memorial to the poet, Margaret Rose Hurndell. He arrives in the small French village of Menton, where Hurndell once lived and worked, to write. But the Memorial Room is not suitableit has no electricity or water. Hurndell never wrote here, though it is expected of Harry.
Janet Frames previously unpublished novel draws on her own experiences in Menton, France as a Katherine Mansfield Fellow. It is a wonderful social satire, a send-up of the cult of the dead author, andin the best tradition of Framea fascinating exploration of the complexity and the beauty of language.
Review
Praise for
In the Memorial Room"[T]his book is marvelous experimental fiction
Frames sentences are marvels, winding like narrow alleys through hill towns: They open spectacular vistas. Brilliant."Kirkus, Starred Review
Review
"This short, funny and often beautifully written novel completed in the early 1970s but just now being published provides an excellent occasion for remembering the weird wisdom and genuine talent of Janet Frame."Scott Bradfield,
The New York Times, Sunday Book Review"[T]his book is marvelous experimental fiction
Frames sentences are marvels, winding like narrow alleys through hill towns: They open spectacular vistas
Brilliant."Kirkus, Starred Review
"[T]he story is also a beautifully crafted artistic and philosophical creation that explores the nature of communication and exposes Frames love of language
this is a terrific introduction to an original writer who deserves her own serious league of fans. Recommended for all fiction collections."Library Journal
About the Author
Janet Frame is one of New Zealands greatest writers. Born in Dunedin in 1924, she published twenty-one books in her lifetime and several posthumously. Her autobiographical work An Angel at My Table was made into a television series by Jane Campion in 1990. Janet Frame died in 2004.