false 39934 6 <P>Long before there were creative writing workshops and degrees, how did aspiring writers learn to write? By reading the work of their predecessors and contemporaries, says Francine Prose.</P><P> In READING LIKE A WRITER, Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters. She reads the work of the very best writers&ndash;&ndash;Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov&ndash;&ndash;and discovers why these writers endure. She takes pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breath&ndash;taking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; she is deeply moved by the brilliant characterization in George Eliot's MIDDLEMARCH. She looks to John Le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue, to Flannery O'Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail, and to James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield who offer clever examples of how to employ gesture to create character. She cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which literature is crafted. Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, READING LIKE A WRITER will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart.</P> 1435619 2006 Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them (P.S.) total:1250|5:281|4:478|3:379|2:88|1:24| 1250 4654 2684 311 4 10 false false Sun Sep 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 23 12:44:17 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 07 18:03:09 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 7 false false Wed Sep 03 03:38:11 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 16 15:58:13 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 03:38:11 -0700 2008
Her comments are geared to literary writers and often I...more...]]> 4 7 false false Sun Aug 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 23 14:30:42 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 17 14:06:23 -0700 2008
This book is sort of dangerous to read, because knowledge, once you have it, changes you. Has this book changed me as a reader forever? I actually...more...]]> 4 7 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 25 22:57:40 -0700 2008 Sat Nov 01 12:00:00 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 4 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 18 02:46:12 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 24 03:23:32 -0700 2007
What is this 'close reading,' you ask? Why, it's r...more...]]> 3 4 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 27 07:26:02 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 27 07:42:24 -0700 2008
Still, Prose brings up several...more...]]> 5 3 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 27 17:05:34 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 15 10:42:48 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 3 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 10 16:41:48 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 10 16:43:51 -0800 2008
The author seems to be influenced by a new form of literary criticism -- Structuralism, post-Structuralism-- in which you analyze literature linguistically rather than psychoanalyzing the author, seeing the ...more...]]> 5 3 false false Tue Nov 11 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 11 16:01:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 11 16:25:24 -0800 2008 once more...]]> 5 3 false false Mon Aug 06 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 27 13:34:36 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 29 08:26:18 -0700 2008
Divided into chapters on words, s...more...]]> 4 3 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 09 10:32:35 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 09 11:04:07 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 3 false false Tue Oct 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 19 08:27:01 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 21 04:17:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 29 13:06:36 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 07 07:56:58 -0700 2008 Lovely Bones review), I thought this would be a good place to start. Unfortunately I didn't get very far. Francine Prose examines very good literature (Hemingway, Joyce, etc.), and how to read it closely to glean everything the a...more...]]> 5 1 false true Sat Oct 28 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sat Mar 01 22:15:07 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 22:16:13 -0800 2008
There are chapters in...more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 21 15:41:31 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 21 16:20:55 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 08 04:02:43 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 24 04:53:29 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 30 17:07:51 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 05 09:12:24 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 24 18:05:53 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 01 18:55:57 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 23 07:25:26 -0800 2007 Mon Jan 21 06:45:37 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat May 03 11:01:26 -0700 2008 Sat May 03 11:01:26 -0700 2008 more...]]>