This newly revised and expanded edition of Critical Encounters: Literary Views and Reviews is Nona Balakian's only available collection of her essays and reviews spanning her long and distinguished career as an editor and critic of The New York Times Book Review. Culled from her pieces in the Sunday and daily Times and .from other literary publications they bring together the best of her lucid and informed perceptions of the writers she considers to be "among the most vital of this century." Always a pleasure to read, they provide an overview of the contemporary literary scene that is both wide-ranging and illuminating. The original edition was nationally acclaimed when it appeared in 1978.