Storyteller extraordinaire, Canadian writer Robert Kroetsch regaled readers with his wild and impossible tales, his exuberant poetry, and his insightful scrutiny of contemporary writing and community life. Says Michael Ondaatje: “Robert Kroetsch was the great force out of the west. He and Rudy Wiebe together were a bolt of energy for the Canadian novel at a time when it really, really needed it” (qtd. in Martin). Publishing his first book, the novel
But We Are Exiles, when he was 38 (quickly followed by
The Words of My Roaringa year later), Kroetsch burst onto the Canadian literary scene with writing that shook readers up, eliciting responses of astonishment, pleasure, apprehension, and admiration. Kroetsch, says Ann Mandel, “arrives by coming first” (55). Setting his fiction and…
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Citation: Markotic, Nicole. "Robert Kroetsch". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 December 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2563, accessed 22 November 2024.]