During takes advantage of recently published letters and biographical information to rethink Patrick White's place in Australian history and culture. He argues that White's rather conventional modernist writings negotiated the end of colonial relations with Britain. During addresses connections between White's homosexuality and his writing, suggesting that many of his texts attain some of their most powerful effects from being written in and about the closet. In addition, he views White as an autobiographical writer who drew on his life to construct an image of himself as a genius: a strategy which successfully set him at the head of Australian national literature.