State of Siege

by Janet Frame

Book Overview

Recipient of the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1989, Janet Frame has long been admired for her startlingly original prose and formidable imagination. A native of New Zealand, she is the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807609862
• ISBN13: 9780807609866
• Release Date: September 1980
• Publisher: George Braziller
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Frame's Classic Novel About A Woman Alone

Frame's book deals with the last days of Malfred Signal, a retired single art teacher who nursed her mother through her final illness. Malfred has shifted from her South Island provincial city to an isolated island community.At first, there are no hints that anything is amiss, but then, Malfred starts to hear noises outside, and makes a panicked telephone call. One becomes aware that the telephone line is not connected. Over the next few days, she becomes increasingly disoriented. One evening, a stone is thrown through her window...The theme of a man alone is one of the staples of a particular period in New Zealand fiction,which highlights a man isolated from the city, dependent on his own wits for survival. Malfred Signal is a response to this- an indictment of a society that could find no purpose for older women, and also indicative of a general humanist need for human community in circumstances of adversity.Malfred's psychological disintegration is handled well and sensitively.