Nearly all of Laurence's works from Africa and Canada are critiqued in this volume. The essays highlight Laurence's innovative narrative styles, showing how her combinations of oral literary forms and unique shifts in tense and point of view help her achieve vivid character portrayals. In addition, viewing Laurence's prose as closely textured poetry, her use of language, theme, and image are carefully critiqued. The importance of Laurence's portrayal of women's experiences, most notably that of aging women, is viewed in a feminist framework. These new American perspectives on Laurence will be of interest to both scholars and students.