Spartina (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Sean O'Casey
- First Published: 1989
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The 1980’s
- Setting: Rural, coastal Rhode Island
- Principal Characters: Dick Pierce, May Pierce, Tom And Charlie Pierce, Elsie Bettrick, Scheyler Van Der Hoevel, Joxer Goode, Captain Parker
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Love or romance, Rural or country life, New England, Feminism, Real estate, Fishing or fishermen, Attitude
- Locales: Rhode Island
Spartina is John Casey’s third book, following the novel An American Romance (1977) and Testimony and Demeanor (1979), a collection comprising four stories. A dark-horse winner of the 1989 National Book Award for fiction, Spartina has been described by Casey as the first book in a projected trilogy set in Rhode Island.
Dick Pierce, the protagonist of Spartina, reminds one—superficially at least—of Mac in An American Romance. Both are ruggedly individualistic men wholly out of step with their times and their societies. Mac, the...
[The entire page is 2054 words long]
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