Preview of Bear and His Daughter Summary:

The forces in what a critic called "an America gone haywire" unraveling the social fabric in Stone's books have severely damaged the characters but Stone intends to do much more than just record their distress. Responding to the charge that his bleak outlook is too pessimistic, Stone contends while "I deal with much that's negative and gruesome—I don't write to dispirit people." At the heart of his work is an artistic credo that fits into the tradition of the writers Stone admires (Dickens; Dos Passos; Fitzgerald). Envisioning a readership somewhat akin to the characters themselves, Stone proclaims: "I write to give them courage, to make them confront things as they are in a more courageous way." Only Mary Urquhart in "Miserere" has any direct contact with some form of organized religion, but Stone's universe includes, even insists, on the presence of God in some form. However...