Contract with the World

In Contract with the World, the setting is Vancouver, and the time is the mid-1970s. Told from six different characters' points of view, the novel describes the intersection between artistic motivation, personal fulfillment, and sexual politics. A portrait painter, a sculptor, a sound musician, a would-be writer - these characters make choices, as Rule's title suggests, that sometimes leave others out in the cold, and sometimes provide a welcoming embrace. The Insomniac Library is proud to reissue Jane Rule's fifth novel, more than twenty years after its initial appearance in 1980. Originally published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in New York, the novel follows and anticipates numerous well-known works, like Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, that revolve around the life of the artist in contemporary society. The new Insomniac edition includes an introduction by noted Jane Rule scholar Marilyn Schuster.