Frank Kermode is too multifarious a writer to have anything as dogged as a theme for his critical work; too sane and stealthy to boast of anything as limiting as an obsession. But there are persistences, continuities, as he calls them in the title of one of his books. There is an interest in difficulty, for example, and especially the difficulty of understanding - either oneself or others. This interest is not discouraging, or downhearted. On the contrary. But it never turns difficulty into ease - a mildly surprising conclusion, given the grace and fluency of Kermode's style.

LRB 17 December 2009 | PDF Download