By Necessity and Indirection: Essays on Modernism in Canadian Literature ranges widely over poetry, fiction, and non-fiction from the 1920s to the 1960s. After situating Canadian Modernism in its national and international contexts, Bentley examines works by such major authors as A.M. Klein, A.J.M. Smith, Sinclair Ross, Howard O'Hagan, Northrop Frye, and Al Purdy, exploring not only the individual qualities of each work, but also its relation to the ideas, themes, and techniques characteristic of Modernism. The collection is remarkable both for its broad sweep and for its sharply focused and brightly illuminating readings.