How Fiction Works by James Wood Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of How Fiction Works
Book Review: Falsely advertised
Summary: 1 Stars
The author claims this book was inspired by earlier classics on writing fiction, but I see no relationship beyond the topic headings. It assumes that you already have firm grounding in fiction writing, and is probably inaccessible if you don't. If you do, it will add very little to what you already know. The typical treatment of an example makes an obvious point than then wanders round and round and round, adding nothing. Many of the discussions seem intended only to display the author's (unquestionable) erudition. This goes on long past being frustrating, past being irritating, to being aggravating.
This book bears no resemblance to that portrayed in its advertisements, including those on the book itself. The front inside of the dust jacket states "...enlightening to writers, readers and anyone else interest in what happens on the page." The first quote on the back of the jacket states "... should delight and enlighten practicing novelists, would-be-novelists, and all passionate readers of fiction. -- The Economist"). However, the other three quotes should serve as warning of what the book is (literary criticism of the classics that is itself high literature and intended for aficionados of such works).
This disparity is at the core of--and justification for--the use by various negative reviews here of words such as "self-indulgent", "over-wrought", "pedantic"...
1. "Fiction" in the title should have been "Novels in the Classical Canon".
2. The author's "common reader" seems to be someone
- immersed in the Classical Canon, either currently or recently (Examples from books I had read years ago were not presented with enough context to be meaningful to me).
- with an advanced degree or equivalent in literature and literary criticism.
The physical layout of the book is also a problem. The lines are only slightly longer than what you find in a typically newspaper (a quick sampling yielded counts of 42-54 characters). My (basic) training in layout was that such short lines divert effort to the physical act of reading, to the detriment of appreciating it.[[2009-030-21: badly worded--see the comments]]
About me: I am a scientist/engineer who writes extensively (promotional materials, advocacy, reports). I read advice on fiction writing because I long ago learned it provides some of the most relevant and important techniques for honing what I write, starting with structuring the material as a story greatly improves comprehension and retention.
Book Review: For every book lover's bookshelf
Summary: 5 Stars
How Fiction Works belongs on every book lover's bookshelf: to be read at random, straight through, occasionally....however you do it, enjoy the read. Wood pays readers the ultimate compliment by giving us this thought-provoking work.Book Review: Helpful for the general reader
Summary: 4 Stars
Points in this book's favor -
It's short, and very readable. In the introduction, Wood promises to be "mindful of the common reader" and to try to "reduce .. the scholastic stink to bearable levels". He does a commendable job of keeping his promise.
Wood's enthusiasm for reading is evident throughout, and is infectious. The strongest aspect of the book are the many specific examples that Wood provides of what works and doesn't work in fiction. Refreshingly, the ratio of positive to negative examples is high, so that we are treated to eloquence inspired by enthusiasm, rather than critical disregard, for the most part. His insights on Chekhov, Joyce, Nabokov (to name just a few) prompt me to go back and (re)read the work in question.
On the other hand:
Although I didn't find Wood's style overtly pompous, there is an inescapable sense that one is reading dispatches from what Walter Kirn, in his wicked New York Times review, refers to as "someone who has attained the detached, big-picture perspective of an orbiting critical satellite". In other words, a slightly offputting air of detached omniscience - that one is reading tablets handed down from the mountain.
Wood displays an enthusiasm for Flaubert (and, to a lesser extent, Henry James) that borders on burbling adulation. There's nothing wrong with this, of course, but when coupled with what appears to be a blanket dislike for almost everything even remotely postmodern, one begins to feel that Wood might be a helpful guide only for a certain subclass of fiction. David Foster Wallace, for example, gets dissed several times throughout the book, with little recognition of his considerable talent and influence. Of the 90 or so works referred to in the book, only 20 date from 1965 or later; 21st century fiction is clearly not where Wood's primary interest lies.
On balance, though, I very much enjoyed the book. Wood's discussion of such topics as narrative voice, effective characterization, use of detail, convincing dialog, and "realism" is generally clear and thought-provoking. For a middlebrow reader like me, this book is likely to be helpful.
A perfectly valid, and thoroughly amusing, view to the contrary is contained in Walter Kirn's New York Times review at the link below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/books/review/Kirn-t.html
Book Review: It's The Truth, Not Realism, Stupid!
Summary: 5 Stars
I read parts of this book aloud, it was so impressive. The author gave me more to think about in his short chapters than many a weighty writer's manual. I especially enjoyed the quotations--he even has me going back to read Flaubert and Bellow again. I even caught him in an error: Dickens doesn't liken Uriah Heep's mouth to a post office; it's Mr. Wemmick, whose mouth resembles the slot on a letter box, a marvelous image of impassivity. The book also made me sit back and review my own writing--are the characters flat? Are the details telling? Have I used free indirect style properly? And what about the metaphors? Do they make you see?
A marvelous book, well worth its five stars from this reader.
Book Review: Just Dazzling
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a dazzling guide to how the mechanisms of the novel originated and developed. It is an exemplary model of how to correlate style and subject matter. It offers inspiration to the novelist and a refreshed sense that fiction matters to those of us who just enjoy reading novels. The book is filled with fascinating insights. I found Wood's illustration of how Flaubert in French is so much more stylistically brilliant than even his best translators can suggest to be particularly illuminating and valuable. This book will make us all better readers.