A 75-Page Novel Shteyngart, Gary (2010). Super Sad True Love Story. New York: Random House. This is my second attempt to read Shteyngart, a darling of the literary fiction world these days. Earlier, I had attempted to read Absurdistan and … Continue reading
I think Hemingway once advised, “Write drunk, edit sober.” Unfortunately, I can’t write drunk — doesn’t work for me. But I can be very sober when I edit. I’ve been editing my two “finished” novel manuscripts. The first one, now … Continue reading
Writer as Artist DeLillo, Don (2001). The Body Artist. New York: Scribner. This short book (125 pp) by an acclaimed master novelist is perplexing, disturbing, and confusing, yet also haunting, dense, and impressive from a craft standpoint. What’s it about? … Continue reading
Happiness is a Warm Puppy Baxter, Charles (2000). The Feast of Love. New York: Vintage. In a group of interwoven short stories, Charles Baxter explores the vicissitudes of love, with plenty of sex. Chapters rotate among a handful of characters, … Continue reading
Humorous Homilies Lamott, Anne. (1994). Bird By Bird: Some Instruction on Writing and Life. NY: Anchor. In a series of personal essays and anecdotes, Lamott muses on what it’s like to be a writer. It’s not really an “instruction,” as … Continue reading
Philosophy of Fiction Wood, James (2008). How Fiction Works. New York: Picador/Farrar, Straus, Giroux. This beautifully manufactured little paperback surveys the main points of novel writing craftsmanship, such as characterization, point of view, metaphor, dialog, and so on, but does … Continue reading
Unrelenting Squalor Woodrell, Daniel (2006). Winter’s Bone. New York: Hachette Book Group When I saw the movie several years ago, I thought the cinematography was overdone. Every scene was filled with squalor, so much so that it created an unnecessarily … Continue reading
Deck Chairs on the Titanic Robinson, Marilynne (1980). Housekeeping. NY: Picador This story is about housekeeping the way that rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic is about required maintenance. First-person narrator Ruthie and her eccentric aunt, Sylvie, go on a … Continue reading
How to Surprise A Reader Boswell, Robert (2008). The Half Known World. Mpls, MN: Gray Wolf Press Robert Boswell presents 9 personal essays exploring different aspects of the craft of writing fiction, all addressing the idea that you should be … Continue reading
The Unspeakable Baxter, Charles (2007). The Art of Subtext. Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf Press Subtext is hard to write, because you don’t write it. You set it up and let it show, but it remains unstated. When done effectively, the reader … Continue reading