In Search of the Perfect Lawn & The Walled Garden

“In both The Walled Garden and In Search of the Perfect Lawn there is the rectangle – a yard, a garden, a lawn. The rectangle is the shape of the page. The page is where the cultivation of ideas takes shape, where the rows of sprigs and fronds that speak these ideas are set. Writing is a form of gardening, a form of cosmic exploration. A working of the two shapes. And for Dean it is a spiritual pursuit at the same time.” —Steven Ross Smith, PARAGRAPH, The Canadian Fiction Review, (No. 25, 1998/99).