‘Pangamonium is a witty, fast paced, satire. The two protagonists couldn’t be further apart, or so it seems. Francis, an American journalist looking for a story, and Easter, a diabetic African on a quest for hidden ancestral treasure. Pangamonium is a visual piece that would transfer well to film – full of sight gags, car chases, and riotous mayhem. It makes a mockery of the establishment, the media, and social norms. With a strong narrative, Pangamonium carries the reader along through an endless string of tricks and puns. It is an hilarious, almost epic, journey. But beneath the humour it is also touching…
Pangamonium has…received a Commended award from the judges for its great gusto in the telling and for its satirical wittiness.’
Ilura Press
***
‘For all its farce, its fantasy and its ludicity, Pangamonium is a pointed and neatly constructed critique of global capitalism, a telling fable that uses the actions of Mr Marman and ACME as its paradigm. This is discussed, of course, in the critical essay, [The Ludic Mode of Pangamonium], but the novel makes it perfectly clear without being over-explicit. I found it a constantly engaging read, told in a lively and intelligent style that had enough tonal variety to encompass farce, serious satire, and a genuine compassion for those who suffer so that others can benefit.’
Nigel Krauth, winner of The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award
***
‘This is a marvellous political novel in the comic mode – full of wit, humour, engaging characters and cleverly-choreographed action. The political perceptions – in global, cultural, racial, multinational and media contexts – are as astute as they are outrageously expressed. The satire against the meanness and folly of individuals, corporations and whole cultural outlooks is a feature of the work.
Via its satire, the novel draws attention to a plethora of intolerances, inequalities, injustices and exploitations perpetrated by the West against the East. Cynical practice and inhumanity in Asia have been noted in novels before, but this work makes an updated, firm political statement in a world where forces of protest seem to have flagged badly. The novel reminds us that the old moral issues still exist – that in a world turned around by distrust of the ‘other’. . .the responsibilities of the common bond of humanity still pertain.
Academic assessor (name withheld at their request)
***
The Saturday Age review
11 August 2012, Life & Style p 33
FRANCIS Germaine turns up in the fictitious country of Panga, somewhere in a kind of patchwork Identikit of every Asian country, and at the customs desk finds his suitcase has been mixed up with someone else’s.
The upshot of the confusion lands him in jail, accompanied by a black guy called Easter who has come to Panga to find the treasure apparently buried under his grandfather’s grave. Germaine is the less exalted kind of freelance writer – trade mags, company reports – and he thinks this new development will give him the adventures he needs to boost his pride and his bank account.
In the offing are Marman Granthi, a factory owner whose workers are young and unfree and make cheap stuff for rich whities, his Bollywood-obsessed gatekeeper Daied, and Amila the quietly feisty librarian.
Zanesh Catkin (can that be his real name?) has some good satirical ideas about Panga, but the writing itself can be a little sketchy. The humour is a bit of a hit-and-miss affair as well. But he’s come up with a winning creation in Easter, with his quest and mildly deranged airs; there are clever spoof articles that Germaine has written for magazines ranging from Kids Life Digest to Repressive States Quarterly Lit Review, and the action is sharply paced. Things seem to get a little sticky towards the end, though, when Germaine finds his redemption, but Catkin gives it an impressively peculiar flourish: Germaine’s last article is called “Magic tits or male lactation?”
Owen Richardson
***
This Charming Mum review
18 August 2012
Before I even started this book I could see it was going to be different from anything else I’ve read lately, or reviewed on the blog. So, strap yourselves in, readers, this one is going to take you on a wild ride!
For starters, I believe this is the first novel I’ve reviewed that has a dildo on the front cover. It’s a subtle (ish) artistic interpretation of the device, but it is there. Author, Zanesh Catkin, has also eschewed the usual author self-promotion we’re accustomed to seeing in cover design by obscuring his face in a comic photograph, alongside a bogus bio. He will not be getting the old “How much of the main character is really you?” question at his next book launch or festival appearance! I found it very refreshing to approach this novel ‘cold’, if you like, without knowing anything about the author’s back-story, agendas or genre history.
And so it was with an open mind that I descended into the African [Asian…Ed.] kingdom of Panga, where our journalist hero Francis is embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. As a foreigner (or a spazokaildehappama in the local language – meaning ‘fortunately not one of my relatives’), Francis attracts suspicion and scrutiny wherever he goes. Border crossings, for foreign journalists, are especially tedious. Getting caught with a suitcase full of vibrators is unlikely to make your immigration interrogation any easier. Francis is arrested, even though he is adamant the suitcase in question is not his, and is thrown into an unlikely partnership with an African pilgrim named Easter – himself on a quest to find his grandfather’s lost treasure.
Meanwhile, in the village of Preta, people are hard at work in a sex toy factory. This is, of course, a highly comic setting with plenty of shock value which invites us to chuckle at how such places create devices for different cultural markets: which country, for example, believes it is the ‘biggest’? The sheer range of products the toy-buying market has to choose from is amusing in itself! And yet … have you ever given it any thought? Somewhere out there, children are enslaved in factories to mass produce sex toys that retail all around the world. The factory boss here jokes that it costs him $6 to make a particular item which sells for $80 in New York. Meanwhile, his staff sleep on small blankets beside their workstations, eating rations dealt out according to their productivity, so that the wealthy head honchos can keep themselves in Rolexes. Panga may be fictional, but the scenario is very real. In this way, Catkin’s novel is both hilarious and horrific – a fantastic, boy’s own travel tale and an insightful indictment of global capitalism.
As the adventure dances in and out of magic realism and social satire, Francis and Easter take on Panga’s military rascals, corrupt corporations and dubious deities in an attempt to split grandpa’s loot and free the children from slavery. Francis’ journey comes complete with a map of Panga, a glossary of local terms and cultural notes (or does it?) as it playfully drags the fantasy and travel narrative genres into the heart of darkness. Cultural and political parody is plentiful here, whilst the characters encountered on the journey run the gamut from sublime to ridiculous. There are also plenty of intertextual nods to the work of other authors (bibliography included) and feminist, postmodern and postcolonial theory, if you happen to be looking for a little ‘Edward Said baloney’. I particularly liked the Vagina Dentata toy model. Unless, of course, those things really exist and it wasn’t a joke. I’m choosing to believe it was a joke.
Pangamonium is a novel at once literary and low-brow. It will hold special appeal for anyone with an Arts degree as well as anyone who likes a good conspiracy theory. More generally, though, it offers a comical and thought-provoking romp for any reader in the market for some fresh, edgy, original fiction.
Dr Lara Cain Gray
***
InDaily review
24 August 2012
This second offering from Adelaide-based publishing company MidnightSun is a right romp of a pangamonious adventure.
Set in the fictitious country of Panga, Pangamonium tells the story of embittered writer Francis Germain. The adventure unfolds after his luggage is switched with someone else’s at customs and he’s arrested for possession of a suitcase full of vibrators.
Teaming up with a diabetic Methodist African named Easter, Francis escapes the clutches of the Pangan authorities and pledges to help Easter find the grave of his pirate great grandfather – and take his share of the treasure that was buried with him.
Throw in a corrupt factory owner who manufactures sex aids for the West through use of child slave labour, his Bollywood-obsessed former military guard, and a feisty, beautiful librarian, and a true adventure story ensues.
Those familiar with the mythic hero quest structure will appreciate its use here. The action is unrelenting, particularly towards the end, and the humour throughout is sharp and intelligent.
Easter’s eccentricities and devotion to his quest act as welcome foils to Francis’s more self-interested concerns. But of course by the end, in true hero-quest style, this almost unlikeable character has undergone quite the transformation.
There are some rather convenient solutions to the troubles in which the pair often find themselves, but suspension of belief is necessary for true engagement in this genre. Francis also intermittently drops in satirical articles throughout the proceedings; watch out for the last one titled “Magic tits or male lactation”.
Part of the real genius of this story is that while Panga may be fictional, its dictatorial regime and labour force of child slaves who sleep by their workstations and are given food rations according to their productivity is a very real scenario. The “evil western company” that buys these slave-produced goods for next to nothing and sells them in New York at a 1000 per cent mark-up is comically named after the Warner Bros cartoon creation ACME.
Population oppression and exploitation of slave and next-to-slave labour is rigorously explored in Pangamonium. So while author Zanesh Catkin allows, and often encourages, the reader to laugh (which country thinks their dildos should be the biggest?), awareness of the global reality of capitalism means you don’t do so too loudly.
Catkin has written a novel that is both literary and very accessible. The glossary at the back explaining local terms is a particular treat: a foreigner is a spazokaildehappamain the local language, meaning “fortunately not one of my relatives”.
Quirky, thought-provoking and completely different from anything else currently on the market, Pangamonium is highly recommended.
Samantha Bond
***
Bonzer review
Issue 126, September 2012
‘Travel broadens the mind. Travel shrinks the wallet. Travel shrivels the testicles.’
About himself Zanesh Catkin writes: ‘Zanesh Catkin was horribly disfigured in a childhood accident; as a result he lived much of his life hidden in attics. He was taken in by a kind family from Minnesota, who offered a loving home and some plastic surgery. Later, they moved to Australia and the confusion really set in.’ Not that I believe a word of it but never spoil a good story by the truth which is exactly the sort of comment one could use to describe his novel Pangamonium…
The story begins when Francis, a jaded journalist, is travelling to get lost to the tiny and remote Asian military dictatorship of Panga. At customs, Easter, a gay [pretends to be gay…Ed.] African diabetic searching for the doubloon filled grave of his murdered pirate ancestor, attaches himself to Francis. This is unwanted annoyance enough but what happens next is purely disastrous:
I was as surprised as he was when he opened the suitcase: it was packed full of vibrators. Easter turned to me, his face showing that he had misjudged me after all, and that I had been churlish to accuse him of smuggling when I was clearly a degenerate privateer myself.
‘That’s not my stuff,’ I said, offended. ‘There’s been a mix-up—this suitcase belongs to somebody else.’
The official reached in and pulled out one of the purple units. He found the switch. The noise of a vibrator is enough to put some people off their game; here it was more like a magnet—the bodies pressed around us, the faces stupefied, embarrassed, fascinated and hostile.
This story is a spoof, albeit a spoof with a serious message. Reading it reminded me initially of that classic send up of Fodor and lonely Planet Travel Guides, the imaginary post-communist republic of Molvania: A land Untouched by Modern Dentistry. The difference is that whereas Molvania is obviously a light hearted clone, Pangamonium is a pure political satire in the guise of a very funny story, and successfully holds to account capitalism, military dictatorships, and the manipulation of small nations by the west, the present day media and the evil perpetrated by corporations.
The luggage debacle at customs is quite sufficient to have Easter and Francis thrown into the cells, feeling somewhat lucky not to have been summarily shot by over-enthusiastic and humourless troops. Finally released they encounter a succession of various entertaining, eccentric or lovable characters, and events, which eventually lead them to the discovery of an industry creating sex toys for export and employing children as slave labour for the princely sum of 1 ‘specifique’ a month (approximately the cost of a tabloid newspaper, or a cup of coffee).
How the evil industrialists are foiled by the combined efforts of Francis and Easter and the motley crew of dissidents they gather along the way, at constant risk to their lives and liberty, provides the backbone of the storyline and manages to make a very pointed critique of globalisation and the exploitation of the poor and uneducated; in particular children.
Throughout the novel bonus entertainment is provided in the form of Francis’s journalistic articles which are presented using the form of a story within a story, perhaps as in The Arabian Nights, whilst never allowing this to distract from the main theme.
I loved it as a comic straight story and also as a satire. For the academics and literati amongst you, Catkin was also asked to write a book ‘about’ this book which appears as a slim companion volume called The Ludic Mode of Pangamonium and is virtually an in-depth exegesis of the novel for which he was granted a PhD. I have not read it and am perfectly happy just to have enjoyed my visit to the small country of Panga.
Heather Stone
***
Grapeshot Magazine
Issue 7, 24 September 2012
The first impression I had of this quirky little novel was when I flicked through the initial filaments of description, and turned to a map of the Panga region in which the book is set. Confused, I looked at it for a few seconds attempting to figure out where in the world this nation could fit into, only to look below and see the subtitle not to scale or shape around what seemed to be an irregular blob of landmass. It was then that I realised that this was not going to be an ordinary book, but rather, a quirky tale of incongruity and absurdity; in the finest possible light, of course!
To briefly outline the plot: Francis is a journalist sent to the tiny kingdom of Panga in order to remove himself from the busy hum of urban life. Upon arriving at the airport, he opens his suitcase to find a plethora of sex toys inside. And so the absurdity begins. He and his new diabetic African companion, Easter, are promptly arrested. They’re both taken through a wild journey as they escape the clutches of the army, factory owners who participate in child slavery, and their own mad follies and delusions, as they attempt to decipher the problem of “dubesur” in an effort to collect the masses of treasure allegedly hidden somewhere in this obscure country.
This work delights in the absurd, and the reasonably normal protagonist, Francis’, struggle to contain the strange situations that he finds himself in. From the beginning of the book, where he is in prison in a country that has legalised opium but banned alcohol, entrapped in an absurd “interrogation” in a barbershop, and even digging through guano floors in caves in order to find the most middling of treasures. Yet, despite all of this absurdity, he still seems real. His reactions to the situations seems normal. Despite what we all say we aspire to be, in reality we would likely respond much the same as Francis when put under this duress, in service to our own personal greed.
One of the best aspects of this book is the hero’s sidekick, who provides an excellent foil to the typical adventure sidekick. A lot of the humour comes from Easter’s inane comments and straightforward attitude, which when combined with his diabetes, solves the problems that the protagonists run into, only to create more difficulties that serve to push them farther back in progress. In doing so, this adds both depth and tension to their relationship, which serves to create a memorable and hysterical development of character and story. The contrast between the sharp and sarcastic comments of Francis and the earnest and sincere ramblings of Easter leads to many moments where I found myself actually cackling with laughter!
Now, of course, this does not mean that the book is flawless. The interruptions with the “memoir” style of writing that Francis wrote after the events seems to break up the narrative flow unnecessarily, Some characters, especially the villains, are not built equally, rather falling into the stereotype trap. As a result, when the hysterical confrontation happens between the heroes and antagonists at the book’s end, there is a release of humour, but no reason to heighten the emotional and comedic stakes. Furthermore, the strange and VERY unexpected turn it takes at the conclusion of the book can only be described as perplexing – why that is, I’ll leave for you to figure out.
Still, this serves to be a highly enjoyable piece of fiction, especially notable for being Catkin’s first foray into long form fictional literature. While not perfect, it still provides some really funny moments, some memorable situations, and some great insights into how contrasts between human beings can lead to them overcoming their own individual difficulties. I look forward to seeing how he progresses as a writer, and where his future work will go.
Liam McCann
***
BestChapLit.com — The Best of Men’s Fiction review
3 July 2013
A hidden treasure. A young guard with a wound staunched by a balled-up map. A suitcase full of vibrators. A gay diabetic beserker with pure pirate in his blood. A fish called Jayne Mansfield. Spontaneous male lactation. How best to describe Zanesh Catkin’s novel, Pangamonium? Mock travelogue? Satire? Parable? Fable? Comedy? To help you, let me say that the act of being mistaken for a sex toy smuggler to the wonderfully mysterious, oppressive – and regrettably fictitious – country of Panga, is only the first of a long list of incidents that befall Catkin’s hero, itinerant journalist, Francis Germaine, as he navigates his way through an absurdist’s view of political corruption and international adventure.
Irascible and endearingly deluded, Germaine is an ‘innocent’ in the mould of Don Quixote or even Bob Hope in those Road movies people of a certain age will remember fondly; in other words, an innocent who isn’t averse to a convenient moral compromise to further his prospects. Joined on his travels by an apparently unsophisticated sidekick, Easter – who nevertheless gets the better of our so-called hero – the pair make entertaining and strangely intimate tour guides.
Catkin demonstrates unusual control of a fable that, like the country of Panga itself, is at once familiar and extraordinary. With the exemplary pacing and wit of a natural storyteller, he leads us smoothly through the farcical implications and moral bear-traps of being a stranger in a strange land, before culminating in an action set-piece which is pure Spielberg. A hugely enjoyable novel that accomplishes what most comic novels fail to do: to pursue a ludicrous conceit beyond its natural limits in order to make you consider the more serious underlying issues, Pangamonium is a novel that not only satisfies, but one that benefits from a second reading.
Jamie Simpson
***
An unusually well crafted tale of Insanity that rings many true bells!
If we are to believe the brief biographical data on this author, then this is what we get: `Zanesh Catkin was horribly disfigured in a childhood accident; as a result he spent his early life hidden in attics. He was taken in by a kind family from Minnesota, who offered a loving home and some plastic surgery. Later, they moved to Australia and the confusion really set in.’ Is that true, or is this just another extension of one of the most hilariously gifted sculptors of parody to come around in a long time? Themes of Western cultural illiteracy, global capitalism, excessive consumption, racism, superficiality and other diversions crowd the pages of this book that while side-splittingly hilarious to read, also presents some very clear eyed focus on the strange world we have created – a world the author calls Panga.
For many, reading the first chapter of this book will be addicting as Francis, our journalist searching for some phenomenal story arrives in the little kingdom of Panga, befriends a clingy Black diabetic, who is allergic to insulin, called Easter who inadvertently becomes involved in the discovery of a case full of dildos that puts the airport into Pangamonium. Easter is determined to uncover his ancestor pirate’s grave that contains a wealth of gold bullion and Francis buys into the possible newsworthy adventure. And that is only the first chapter. From there the pages flip so quickly, sparkling with parody and humor and witticisms and truths that by the end of this book the reader feels transported to a place unlike any – except maybe an open-eyed look at the very space we are creating with our global nonsense.
The book is all wonderful fun…and if the reader takes time to digest each situation that arises, this is a superb Gulliver’s Travels for our time!
Grady Harp, Top 50 Reviewer, Hall of Fame Reviewer – 4 stars
A wonderful adventure
I truly enjoyed this novel because it delivers an excellent read on so many levels. It’s full of wit, humor and adventure, and it’s also skillfully interwoven with social commentary. I’m amazed at the keen eye the author has on the world around us and how he conveys it so artistically. You feel what the characters feel as you travel gleefully along with Francis and Easter on their quest. I have to admit that I would have liked to have been able to smack Francis upside the head a couple of times, which only goes to show how much he seemed to come off the pages. The author has definitely humanized his characters which is what makes a great story. It’s a wonderful book and a definite keeper in my library.
Jacklyn Craft – 5 stars
Brain Spa!
It’s been a long time since I laughed out loud while reading a novel but I did so countless times during this playful and bright romp. This is an intelligent and incisive exploration of several themes: global capitalism, western cultural illiteracy, exploitation, excessive consumption, superficiality and narcissism. All this within a classically absurdist construct, so rare a genre these days. Sad really, because this is a time we probably need it most! Like all good absurdist humour, there is a huge dollop of cutting truth to the astute observations made here. Catkin writes fluidly with tremendous self depreciation, and a keen eye for action and mise-en-scène . There were times that I harked back to other absurdist works: John Kennedy Toole’s ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ and Friedrich Durrenmatt’s ‘The Visit’ or indeed Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’. So much fun! Give your brain and soul a rest and read Pangamonium for your health’s sake!
Hyndsight2020 – 5 stars
Catkin creates…
This book made me laugh, made me cry and made me think… the perfect novel.
The reasonably conventional first page tricks you into a false sense of security. Yeah I’ve read something like this before… The main character travelling to escape but then WHOA the bizarre journey begins.
Pangamonium is laugh out loud funny but intertwined in the hilarity is a brutally honest critique of the conundrum of capitalism in a scenario where children are forced to…. no I’ll stop now and let you read the book to find out that outrageously weird part of the storyline.
This book plays games with your mind but in an enticing, engaging way. You’ll get sucked into diabetic Easter’s quest to stay alive and healthy enough to find his pirate ancestor’s treasure and his collection of characters that willingly or is it unwillingly join him.
I loved how Zanesh plays with language, in fact he invents a new language amid the mayhem and the madness. He must write more novels so I can continue to tell you how much I love his work.
Cdcreads – 5 stars
Wordplay and Adventure
This is an adventure story, a heroic quest, a buddy book and a mock travel story to the imaginary Asian country of Panga. The hero (Francis) is a disenchanted writer looking to escape himself and instead falls into “partnership” with an African diabetic searching for his pirate grandfather’s buried fortune. Through many twists and turns, meeting many fabulous characters, Francis’ desired disengagement is challenged. I read the book “straight” – just for pleasure – though there are many who might enjoy some of the deeper ideas that run through it.
The novel is playful yet self-reflective. It’s fun to read, drawing you into the characters and their lives and hopes. For the literary reader, it offers a lot more (and I would recommend the accompanying “Ludic Mode of Pangamonium,” which is a full exegesis of the novel), with allusions to a very broad range of authors and writing.
Ned Roberts – 5 stars
A Fierce Farce
This novel strikes a fine balance between farce and satire. What is most satisfying is that because there is so much silliness in the book, the immense sadness at its core comes as a surprise, jarring a tooth as you crunch down eagerly. Graham Greene gave “Our Man in Havana” the subtitle of “An Entertainment”, a little self-deprecating epithet to hide (or, more likely, draw attention to) the fact that the novel had much to say about the Cold War. It’s the same here. The suitcase full of dildos is a blind for what the author sees as the real and tragic consequences of capitalism and “development”.
His rather broad brushstrokes when defining the world in which the story takes place give the ideas behind it a kind of universality. This is Paul Theroux’s Asia as well as Alex Garland’s, a foreignness seen by the backpacker, the businessman and the aid worker alike. It is a place that stretches from Bollywood to lawlessness reminiscent of Africa to the circus of South East Asian tourism. Whether that lack of specificity is a useful tool or not, the reader will decide for themselves.
Vijay Khurana– 4 stars
Romp with a purpose
Like John Kennedy Toole’s ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’, Catkin’s ‘Pangamonium’ is a romp with an underlying ironic barb. If you’re not laughing yourself, then someone near you on the tram will be! This is destined to become a cult classic.
Mag Merrilees – 4 stars
An excellent read
This comic tale thinly masks a deep and thoughtful exploration of the human cost of our modern manufacturing reality. The characters are expertly crafted and immediately leap off the page. The story; of self discovery, friendship and a good old fashioned treasure hunt is told with magnificent details that place the reader firmly beside the characters as they navigate their way through Panga and it’s perils.
What I enjoyed most about this book was the optimistic enduring hope for humanity that was threaded throughout the story. From a close shave in a barber’s shop to the toss of a hand gun to a man on top of a bus, all of Catkin’s characters keep the faith. An excellent read that lifts the spirits and lets us remember just for a few hours at least that people are capable of good – and of change.
Sophie Lamonto – 4 stars
A Wild Ride
Now here is a new-style novel for the 21st century! Our times seem to hunger for the real. Ironically, in this high farce, “Pangamonium”, Zanesh Catkin gets us there via his imaginative journey to a flawed contemporary Shangri-La. Catkin takes the old tools of making art to play with we readers as he moves between a romping good tale with vexed, larger-than-life characters and inventive asides about his own premise in the writing. Multi-layered, it is no arid post-modern novel, but has a quality of irony and wit as he toys and tantalises us with the potential of playfulness, or the ludic mode.
In our digitally mediated times where the notion of privacy is ancient history, what better way to start this novel than Francis Germaine, the hard-bitten journo, enduring a customs search of his suitcase to reveal it bursting with sex toys? And they aren’t even his! An ultimately shameful experience for most of us, but Catkin piles it on by having his hero meet up with Easter, a Bible carrying African on a mission who highjacks him pretending to be his lover. And the pace just cranks up from this start.
What better respite from the contemporary condition? How long since you’ve read a book that gives you belly laughs? Health alert: “Laughter is the best medicine”. If the novel is a bridge to existential questions, there is plenty of grist for the mill here. What books is this like? Hard to say, perhaps a mutant hybrid of Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake” and Tom Sharpe’s “Wilt”. For the multiple constituencies of readers, there is definitely something for everyone here! What’s next, Zanesh?
Martciel – 5 stars
***
Review of The Ludic Mode of Pangamonium
‘This is a strong piece of academic research.
It clearly displays original and critical thought, by bringing together critical discourses about disparate literary genres – the ludic novel, the quest narrative, the travel piece, the adventure romance, the postcolonial novel, the satire, etc – and places them in the context of a new work of fiction which is itself a delightful application of refreshed and traditional thinking about the novel form.
It provides a significant contribution to knowledge in that it delves deeply into several genre areas – especially the ludic novel – and produces a strong academic discussion, which is also a perceptive writerly account, of the thinking behind writing in a global context. The submission examines the white Anglo-Saxon male writer confronting surrounding cultural perspectives with a rare viewpoint that trades off (and identifies with) North American, Australian and other cultural perspectives.
It relates the topic of research to the broader framework of the discipline within which it falls, by actively entering the literary and philosophical discussions underlying it, and by choosing to focus discussion on major novelists, critics and commentators in the field, and their relevant major works, and it is clearly, accurately and cogently written, suitably illustrated with examples to support an argument which builds in significance from start to finish.
…an excellent example of an exegesis…outstanding…’
Academic assessor (name withheld at their request)