SOURCE: "Characters and Strategies in Audrey Thomas's Feminist Fiction," in Essays on Canadian Writing, No. 47, Fall 1992, pp. 43-50.

In the following essay, Quigley analyzes Thomas's depiction of men in her fiction, as well as her use of a wide variety of ethnicities in her secondary characters.

Probably more than one reviewer has commented that he is tired of all the negative male characters that populate Audrey Thomas's work, but, if the reader can get past them, there are also a lot of interesting female characters and strategies in her fiction. And, if patriarchy was not institutionalized in our private and public lives, there would be no reason for feminist struggles, which are numerous, so a feminist critique of men should not be dismissed lightly.

Most of the men in Audrey Thomas's collection The Wild Blue Yonder seem misplaced; they are nonfunctional or downright disgusting in their human relationships...