Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel
Author | : Jane Smiley |
Publisher | : Faber & Faber |
Total Pages | : 469 |
Release | : 2014-08-14 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780571317684 |
ISBN-13 | : 0571317685 |
Rating | : 4/5 (685 Downloads) |
Download or read book Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel written by Jane Smiley and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2014-08-14 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Pulitzer Prize-winning author's revelatory celebration of the novel - at once an anatomy of the art of fiction, a guide for readers and writers and a memoir of literary life. Over her 20 year career, Jane Smiley has written many kinds of novels - mystery, comedy, historical fiction, epic. But when her impulse to write faltered after 9/11, she decided to approach novels from a different angle: she read 100 of them, from the 1000-year-old Tale of Genji to the recent bestseller White Teeth by Zadie Smith, from classics to little-known gems. With these books and her experience of reading them as her reference, Smiley discusses the pleasure of reading; why a novel succeeds - or doesn't; and how the form has changed over time. She delves into the character of the novelist and reveals how (and which) novels have affected her own life.