The Swing in the Garden

• Published in: Canadian Odyssey p. 51
• Main Author: W.J. KEITH
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: MQUP 11.03.2002
• Subjects: Agricultural sciences; Agriculture; Allusion; Artists; Arts; Behavioral sciences; Biography; Biological sciences; Biology; Childhood; Children; Cognitive psychology; Developmental biology; Economic disciplines; Economics; Employment; Fiction; Historical methodology; Historiography; History; Horticultural practices; Horticulture; Human developmental stages; Human populations; Labor economics; Literary devices; Literary elements; Literary genres; Literature; Memoirs; Memory; Narrative point of view; Narrators; Novelists; Novels; Occupations; Persons; Population studies; Psychology; Social sciences; Writers
• ISBN: 0773523448; 9780773523449
• DOI: 10.1515/9780773570085-006

As readers, we approach any book we open with certain generic expectations.The Swing in the Gardenis described and classified as a novel, so we naturally anticipate a work of fiction. After the first few pages, however, we may well begin to wonder whether we have been deceived by an error in cataloguing. The book does notfeellike a novel; we register a distinct impression of recollection rather than invention. Further thought – and further reading – will soon bring the realization that a deliberate blending of generic effects is involved. “On the face of it,” Keith Garebian has written,