Vanished (Magill’s Literary Annual 1989)
At a glance:
- Author: Mary Jane McGarry
- First Published: 1988
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: Approximately 1982-1988
- Setting: The eastern United States, from Florida to Vermont
- Principal Characters: Aubrey Wallace, Dotty Johnson, Canny Bird
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Power, personal or social, Love or romance, Abused persons, Crime or criminals, Twentieth century, Escapes, 1980’s, Incest, Violence, Kidnapping, Work or workers
- Locales: East (U.S.)
Mary McGarry Morris’ Vanished stands out of the literary crop of its time like an icicle on the Fourth of July. In a climate increasingly dominated by trifling accounts of yuppies or yuppies-gone-bad, Morris’ taut account of three socially marginal people seems striking indeed. Yet she is writing in a distinct tradition—a tradition older than the spare realism of Raymond Carver or William Kennedy, who share Morris’ preoccupation with outcasts but not her narrative drive. Although Vanished takes place primarily in New England, its antecedents are Southern novels,...
[The entire page is 2593 words long]
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