... is a good example of how Lafferty likes to use history. In using time travel, he can define historical figures to the reader. The reader, in a sense, meets Thomas More and is introduced to the idea of Utopia. This allows the reader to learn and be entertained at the same time. Lafferty's Nine Hundred Grandmothers is an interesting display of his sense of humor ... his job with the expedition. In such stories, Lafferty forces a person to use his or her imagination. It feels incomplete, yet the only way to complete it is for the reader to complete it himself. This ability was Lafferty's g...

• Word Count: 2850
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... of death, economic worries, and family friction. At least that is the way the stories appear to an outsider; of course, I am not qualified to speculate on how the Parsi reader might react. Amin Malak, in a review of the book, notes that "the writer's sympathies preclude his condemning or disowning his culture in its entirety, and the humorous rendition of character ... bruised soul. A Fine Balance. Indira Gandhi, the Congress Party, and India's social injustice again serve as the villains in A Fine Balance, which takes as its epigraph the warning from Balzac's classic, Le Pere Goriot: "...

• Word Count: 4673
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of death, economic worries, and family friction. At least that is the way the stories appear to an outsider; of course, I am not qualified to speculate on how the Parsi reader might react. Amin Malak, in a review of the book, notes that "the writer's sympathies preclude his condemning or disowning his culture in its entirety, and the humorous rendition of character ... bruised soul. A Fine Balance. Indira Gandhi, the Congress Party, and India's social injustice again serve as the villains in A Fine Balance, which takes as its epigraph the warning from Balzac's classic, Le Pere Goriot: "...

• Word Count: 4675
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate