Kerydwenn's review
On Becoming a Novelist by John Champlin Gardner
I'm quite keen on books about how to write, but I'm not sure I agree with this one. Probably because 'being a good writer' and 'being good at giving advice to aspiring writers' isn't exactly the same thing? The elitist point of view of the author, his way of presenting the writer as some kind of weird animal, as well as the feeling I had of witnessing in action a person who liked to hear himself talk, didn't exactly agree with me. Besides, I don't feel like I walked out of this reading spell with appropriate advice in hand regarding 'how to become a novelist'...
I tried "The Art of Fiction" from Gardner a few years back and got exactly the same impression: elitism, and the tone pissed me off too much to find the nuggets of information under it. I didn't finish the book. Guess your review means I won't try any of his other books either!
To be really honest... I didn't manage to finish it either. I tried. I swear. Alas, it didn't work in the end.
