AustLit

'In her 3-volume autobiography Janet Frame repeatedly links the problem of identity to matters of perspective. Her preoccupation with how others might see her, a typically feminine one, is both debilitating and a source of creative energy. On the one hand, looking within from without causes her to adopt and discard various socially approved feminine masquerades whilst her 'real' self remains in hiding. On the other hand, the fact that this self-scrutiny is balanced with an outward focused gaze leads her to investigate and articulate the power of this view from the other. The result is a literary autobiography in which the self revealed is simultaneously the self concealed. Frame is not fooled as Narcissus was by his image in the mirror.' (Author's introduction)