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| Author: James Wood
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy New: $16.32
You Save: $7.68 (32%)
Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 1370
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0374173400
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.3
EAN: 9780374173401
Publication Date: July 22, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Cover is the Key August 18, 2008
11 out of 14 found this review helpful
The retro cover says it all. Farrar, Straus knew that it had the next big thing and that the next big thing consisted of a return to the best of the past. The book is receiving a great deal of attention, confirming their prescience.
How Fiction Works is a study of something that is very old-fashioned these days: craft. It is an examination of key elements of fiction and how they are most fully utilized by skilled writers. The vast majority of the writers examined here are canonical ones--another old-fashioned touch. The book is also cognizant of the nuances of narrative history and (a more modern touch) draws on popular culture for key insights. In short, this is a delightful, perceptive "book" book. First and foremost, it is an exceptional read. It is opinionated (though not abusive or flippant) and is a nice example of something that many modern students may never have seen before--judicial criticism. Frye famously argued that judicial criticism is passé, now that we realize that literary "quality" is like the stock market. Particular authors' "stock" rises and falls, depending on generational interests, so we should not concern ourselves with evaluative judgments. That is all very nice, except for the fact that reviewers, referees, acquisition editors and agents are forced to make evaluative judgments and in a world in which 800,000 books are published annually, readers seek help and advice from putative experts.
The book takes part of its inspiration from E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel, an interesting little book that has enjoyed some influence. How Fiction Works goes well beyond Forster (sometimes on issues which Forster is associated with specifically, e.g., the distinction between `flat' and `round' characters). This is a book for both critics and practitioners. It wears its erudition lightly, in the English mode, but its thoughts are often weighty and its insights acute (e.g. the notion that the French are suspicious of realism because of the function of the preterite in their language).
The book is a must read for teachers and students of narrative, both for the importance of its arguments and for its function as an exemplar of what once functioned as "criticism" and might so function once again.
 A Literary Critic Who Doesn't Resort to Snobbery August 12, 2008
9 out of 13 found this review helpful
I was delighted that James Wood didn't take a condescending attitude about his subject. He doesn't say this is how it should be, but this is how it is and here is why. At first I didn't understand what the hell he was talking about, but somewhere during the second essay I adjusted to his style, became acclimated if you will, and I ended up getting a lot out of it. His examination of language in fiction was my favorite part.
I recommend this for anyone who appreciates an analytical approach to writing technique. This is not a how-to, however. Rather, it is more of a commentary.
 Obviously James Wood has never written a novel September 12, 2008
8 out of 23 found this review helpful
I bought this book because I am in the process of writing a novel and thought it might be helpful. Uh. Wrooong. Here is my favorite sentence in the 86 pages I managed to get through: "Anyway, one can accept Barthes's stylistic proviso without accepting his epistemological caveat: fictinal reality is indeed made up of such 'effect,' but realism can be an effect and still be true." This guy (near as I was able to ascertain) was writing about using detail to show the passage of time. He attributes deep, meaningful significance to the rat-a-tat scatty groove a writer falls into while creating a sense of place and time. Why the writer said the clock faced the fireplace has almost zero meaning to the writer, but to James Wood, it is profound. No fledgling author can benefit from being coached to step back from the process, which is what Mr. Wood's book attempts to do.
I am closing this book forever at page 86 because it hasn't taught me a single thing. It hasn't opened my eyes in any way. And it certainly has no relationship to the writing process. This is a book on how to be a critic. I live in San Diego. We have a local paper called the Reader. The Reader has a film critic who is so obscure and sneeringly condescending that nobody reads his reviews except to see in what way he ripped apart a favorite film. James Wood's book reads like one of the film critic's columns from the Reader: Remote and disconnected from the topic. Plus, this book is genuinely archaic in both it's style and it's orientation to the medium. If you buy it to learn how to write you will waste your money. Buy Bird by Bird by Anne Lamontt instead. I gave this book one star because they wouldn't let me give it less. NOTE: This the only review I have ever been motivated to write.
For every book lover's bookshelf July 28, 2008
7 out of 23 found this review helpful
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.
 A terrific reference -- August 15, 2008
6 out of 13 found this review helpful
If you write, let's hope you do massive amounts of reading good literature. If you are a reader of substance, James Woods' book will edify your intellectual and emotional connection to what you have already learned, albiet subconsciously. All the devices are there, the silliness, the overworked metaphors, the sly styles, the magic. He is obviously a fan of Flaubert at whose feet Woods lays much credit for today's (good) writing. In fact, it's nearly an homage. So many great books are referenced, referred to, excerpted -- it makes you want to go back and re-read them all in order to see the work with a clearer vision. What we enjoyed as plain old storytelling, Woods shows us is hardly random and not without great intellectual and artistic effort. Woods compares great writers (old and new) to each other showing us flaws and greatness in each of them.
Highly recommended for readers and writers.
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