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Jan 16, 2011

oriana rated it:

This feels like a tiny defection because I'm going to Cali on Monday and I bought Rancid Pansies specifically for airplane reading... but Jincy is so awesome, I just couldn't resist her.

***

Well, this was indeed a good choice for an airplane book, especially since we (stupidly) flew fucking Airtran, which doesn't even show movies! WTF? So I was finished with this before we even got to our layover.

What to say...? I like Jincy a whole lot, and I liked this too, More...

12 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 10, 2008

Sara rated it:

I found this book to be funny, provocative, and above all, intelligent. My sense is that Willett's wisdom has been hard-earned, yet she shares it generously. I'm not a writer, and I've never attended workshops such as those so precisely evoked in this novel, but as a teacher of English, I recognize what Willett so clearly describes: the many nuances of the relationship between a well-intended, ambitious class and an equally responsible instructor.
Many of us who read compulsively, hop More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 22, 2008

Meredith rated it:

Yesterday, I noticed this book was due today and someone had put a hold on it. (The hold wasn't there last week!) So after dinner, I cracked it to see if it were worth keeping/putting back on the list. I finished it this morning, and didn't get a lot of sleep in the meantime (except for the fifteen-minute nap on the couch between 5th and 6th class chapters. It involved drool, and I won't say more than that). What a fun read! Interesting and endearing characters, fascinating weirdness but a More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 20, 2008

Matt rated it:

All at once this novel is funny, clever, sad, thrilling, and readable. And in between all of the lovely bits of story, there are some nearly profound thoughts on writers and writing, on art vs. not art, on loneliness and on happiness and what it means to be either or both. And, of course, the humor--the wit--is constantly surprising, appearing in places you'd never expect it if you've never read Jincy Willett before. Sure, the identity of the killer didn't come as a huge shock to me--I'd gues More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 09, 2009

christa rated it:

I took enough creative writing classes in college to know exactly who Jincy Willett is talking about when she introduces Tiffany, the student who combs every piece of writing for evidence that women are being portrayed in a way that is demeaning. I also recognized the doctor, who plunked down a dictionary-sized novel-in-progress on the first day of class, and Carla -- little talent, but in the front row every semester, parroting back -isms from the professor.

Willett's most recent no More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 21, 2008

Meghan rated it:

I really like Jincy Willett, and I also really liked reading this book. Here's the thing, though. It's a mystery, right. A sort of Ten Little American Indians thing, set amidst a writing class. So she's playing in a genre sandbox, which is great, but the mystery components of this book don't hold up entirely. The red herrings are done away with at weird times and a few of the crimes didn't make sense to me. There was also a lot of talking and making phone calls when I wished there was action. I More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 01, 2008

Nancy rated it:

There was a lot to like about this book. Jincy Willett is a sharp, witty (and a bit bitter) writer who it's just plain fun to hang around with, and there were many wonderful lines and paragraphs that I just had to read aloud to Jim. I also loved the concept (an extension school writing class -- one of the writers starts killing off the others)

The problem, however, and a big one, was with the murder mystery. Jincy Willett had absolutely no idea how to do that well; it was obvious that More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Aug 11, 2008

Laura rated it:

Just fun----but smart fun, witty fun, has you groaning-in-sympathy and also who-the-heck-done-it fun. The Writing Class operates from a kind of Canterbury Tales/Ship of Fools scenario, whereby strangers gather together, each with his/her own story (I refer to their personal ones, not the lamentably bad ones most of them cough up for the novel's eponymous writing class), and things happen. Surprisingly nasty things. I loved the teacher, the main character here, who is neurotic and spunky, with a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 24, 2008

Miss Michael rated it:

I picked this up because I've been in enough writing classes to appreciate a little parody of the typical students you find in them. I had no idea that there would be a mystery element, and I was pleasantly suprised by it. It was a quick, light read, plenty of humor, much of it literary. Willitt had some spot on character portrayals, particularly Tiffany, Dot, and Dr. Sutrees. I have seen those students. I've seen all of them, in one form or another, which heightened the humor for me. Overall, a More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2008

Terra rated it:

This is what happens when you don't read jacket copy. I thought this was going to be a humorous, quirky story about a community writing course full of literary duds and amusing references to classic literature. While I wasn't disappointed there, the story takes a sharp turn into a suspenseful but never truly frightening murder mystery. It's an enjoyable and quick read, full of entertaining scenes such as a classroom's attempts to uncover the motivations and character of a murderer based on a l More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Cynthia rated it:

Finally read The Writing Class by Jincy Willett. V. funny but also dark. Really dark, like she gets into all the worst things you almost don’t let yourself think about as an writer. All the deepest fears and insecurities and bitterness. But she is also absolutely funny and spot on about the writing workshop situation, from a teacher’s perspective. And then there’s the mystery, which is so well done.

The main character is Amy, a novelist who has not published a book since the 80s. Amy d More...

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Mar 16, 2009

melissa rated it:

A very interesting thing happened when I was reading this book. It hasn’t happened before. Several times throughout, I would think to myself, why am I reading this? It was entertaining enough, but I didn’t think I was really invested enough to continue. I would put it down and walk away for a while. I usually have several books on the go, but when I would sit down and debate what to read next, none of them appealed to me, and I always ended up back at this book. There was such a diverse ca More...

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Feb 26, 2009

Kim rated it:

This book is a murder mystery, dun dun dun. The reason it attracted my attention was because it is themed around, you guessed it, a writing class. The main character Amy is the professor of this class and quickly establishes quirky names and author cliches for each of her students. The students turn in manuscripts to be evaluated by the class and Amy finds that one of the students is leaving cruel comments. The cruel comments escalate into cruel pranks and eventually a death. The class catc More...

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Feb 25, 2011

Victoria rated it:

Oh, I really had a fun time reading this book! It was very well done and quite entertaining! From almost the very first page, it immediately reminded me of one my favorite movies, Throw Momma From The Train and while the characters that Willett created had little in common with the class in the movie, and the Hitchcockian elements present in the film, were stripped from this book, there were some elements that could not have been coincidental (like "the night was hot"). Willet did a st More...

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Mar 26, 2010

Justine rated it:

Spring Break reading bender 1:

A wise man named Sing Su aptly pointed out that he wanted to like this book more than he did. I love me some Jincy Willett, but after a strong first half, the book loses a lot of steam.

Premise: Embittered author who is critical success at a young age but now fallen by the wayside teaches extension school creative writing classes to pay the bills. One of her students is killed by another. She has to use writing samples to figure out the ident More...

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Feb 11, 2010

Alan rated it:

Lately I have been extremely bogged down with text books and pile of homework. However, I was assigned to read this novel for a writing class that I am taking. Knowing that the book is about an English teacher who is surrounded by student suspects, I harbored my own doubts about how gripping the story could be. I was, however, pleasantly surprised to find myself drawn into the complicated plot.

To summarize the story briefly, Amy (can't recall her last name) is an adjunct English prof More...

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Jun 01, 2009

Andrew rated it:

At a time when I was already in the middle of several other books (just as I am right now), the bookstore where I work got a shipment of new books in, and this one looked fascinating to me. I dropped everything else I was reading in order to blow through this book in about three days, and I never regretted it for a second. At first glance, "The Writing Class" might seem like a standard cozy mystery, one structured in a similar manner to the endless craft mysteries pumped out by Berkele More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 26, 2009

marg rated it:

Perhaps it is unfair to give a low grade due to failed expectations - as someone who teaches creative writing in high school, I am therefore that much more excited and that much more critical when it comes to a novel with that premise - I want it to resonate with me more so than the usual book and when it doesn;t I am that much more dismayed.
There are a few ways in which this work failed me, and it is hard to know how much is the author's fault.
This is about a writing class with the More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 17, 2009

Bernadette rated it:

Amy Gallup is a writer-turned-teacher who runs an evening fiction-writing course. Her current class is turning out to be surprisingly enjoyable for Amy as the students are clever and seem willing to enter into the spirit of critiquing each other’s work. However an undercurrent of hostility creeps in when someone who Amy christens The Sniper starts playing nasty pranks on both the teacher and fellow students.

I nearly didn’t read this book because when I got it home from the library I More...

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Sep 15, 2009

Jay rated it:

I was encouraged to read this book by a friend, who a value the opinion of very much. I was told this book would be good, and, having found this friend's opinion to be reliable in the past, I was looking forward to reading it.

And I would have liked to have enjoyed this book. The cover itself is quite witty, and a rather good reflection on the typical people you would find in a class.

Unfortunately, I felt the story fell flat. The characters were one-dimensional on the mos More...

2 comments like

Apr 18, 2011

Danny rated it:

Wasn't thrilled with this one. Started slowly and the murder comes inexcusably* late in the book. Not a page turner. But it does present an interesting portrait of a creative writing workshop, and the cast of characters (suspects) is well played for the most part (except a few who seemed to disappear and reappear without reason). Did enjoy the way the author included snippets of all the work being discussed in the class, and writing with authority about writing (especially from an older woman a More...

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Feb 21, 2010

Christina rated it:

It's got to be hard to write a book around critique. You're practically begging for your own work to be dissected. I'm flashbacking to Fiction II.

Dear author:
What worked for me were the workshop bits. Dialogue felt real and I enjoyed the characters although some of them were a bit one-dimensional (still, I've been in classes with weirder groups, to the extent that no one would believe them on paper—and some of them had few discernible dimensions either). Although the culpri More...

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Jun 06, 2011

Jane rated it:

I doubt this will be a "favorite" book, but it is so clever and funny. Wish I had saved it to bring to the lake, it feels very entertaining. Maybe just the right book to read as the school year is winding down and I am so sad about saying goodbye to these particular kids. My own "writing class" although only a few of my fifth graders believe that they will publish. Actually, some do, and probably will. I'll be interested to see how this develops.

Well, I realize More...

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Nov 28, 2009

Stephanie rated it:

Having never taken an adult writing class, I think I missed out on a lot of the insider jokes and cynical jabs at amateur fiction. The pace is quick, although gets a bit bogged down in the protagonist's back story (how did she end up lonely, in a trailer with a fat dog and a heavy breather on the phone?).

Said recipient of heavy breathing is a female writing teacher of a certain age at an adult education class. The class is comprised of a "all walks of life" group of people, More...

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Mar 07, 2009

Karen rated it:

I'm re-writing my review of this book - it deserves more. The plot starts out quickly with detailed notes by the killer watching the entry of the writing teacher to her college extension classroom. The writing teacher is a formerly celebrated has-been author, a woman who has grown cynical and lonely in the many decades since her success. The class is a mish-mash of the usual suspects for such a class, but over time, the teacher Amy realizes that they are unusually astute and their critical ana More...

2 comments like

Aug 25, 2008

Eve rated it:

This book was smart and hilarious, as well as a page-turner. There were some similarities between this and Francine Prose's Blue Angel, in that the premise of both is a fiction writer's workshop, and the bad fiction is hilarious. Loved the voice of the narrator who is an unapologetic cynic and hermit. There is a mystery that unfolds that keeps things very interesting; this book was a lot of fun.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 17, 2010

Kerry rated it:

an OK read. another book club choice that got mixed reviews from the group. Not a hard core mystery--takes almost 200 pages for the 1st murder and little suspense in those 200 pages. found it hard to care particularly who the murderer was since the people in the writing class seemed to have so little concern about it and they were the potential victims. if they didn't seem stressed out that someone in their small group was ready to kill anyone of them for no particularly good reason I too co More...

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Jun 29, 2010

Steve rated it:

A fun read. Maybe not the best as a mystery, but an engaging premise. Amy, an author who years before had been called promising, teaches an adult writing class. With each session, though, progressively bad things happen. They know that one of their own classmates is the culprit. So, invoking the standard catchphrase, whodunit? We’re supposed to figure it out from the students’ writing assignments. The recognizable archetypes are part of the fun: the fan of the hard-boiled detective novel More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 29, 2009

Melanie rated it:

A fast, fun read; an enjoyable mystery, wrapped in a writing class, inside a meditation on storytelling and the oft-times frustrated storytellers who tell them.

I read this after being (mostly) stood up for a first "date" with the members of my nascent writing group. I sat in the bookstore and ate carrot cake and plowed through this page-turner and thought to myself, ha ha, now I'm going to add all of you to the list of people I hope to spite with my writing, well, not you More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 25, 2008

Karen rated it:

Despite the injection of mystery into this fictional novel, it turned out to be a pretty good read. The characters were believable, the premise realistic, and the pace just about right.

There is quite a cast of characters (over 10), and I got a little confused as to who was who. (Anyone who knows me will not find this surprising.) The main character (the writing class instructor) has enough foibles and neuroses to make her sympathetic, but it's almost too much when combined with th More...

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