Paying Attention: Critical Essays on Timothy Findley

Timothy Findley is a writer obsessed with time and place. His fiction and drama return again and again to the two world wars, the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Cold War. His cast of characters includes people of varied racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds, different sexual orientations, multiple ages, diverse political stripes, and, of course, a number of animals and birds, so powerfully characterized that they seems as real to Findley's readers as Wallis Simpson or Sir Harry Oakes. His work provides us with a rich standpoint from which to review, question, and interpret the culture, politics, myths, and history of contemporary society. This collection of nine essays provides readers with original perspectives on Findley's work from influential critics and new scholars. It includes articles on both the lesser-known works, such as the short fiction, drama, and early novels, as well as on the major works, including Headhunter and The Piano Man's Daughter.

Anne Geddes Bailey teaches at the University of Western Ontario and Brescia College. Karen Grandy teaches in the department of English at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. She has published articles on Canadian drama and New Zealand fiction.