On Writers and Writing beyond - Softcover

Gardner, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201483386 ISBN 13: 9780201483383

Verlag: Perseus Books, 1995

Inhaltsangabe

Book by John Gardner

Über diesen Titel

Reseña del editor

"All my life, " John Gardner wrote, weeks before his death in a motorcycle accident, "I've lived flat-out. As a motorcycle racer, chemist, writer...I was never cautious." This goes for John Gardner the critic as well, and that is nowhere more evident than in the pieces collected in this book. On Writers and Writing brings together, for the first time, John Gardner's essays and reviews on his fellow writers and reaffirms his status as one of the most intelligent, generous, and insightful critics of his generation. In piece after piece we see Gardner, the consummate teacher and critic, separating novelistic wheat from chaff, genuine fiction from fakery, examining the work of writers he admires - Saul Bellow, Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth, John Cheever, Larry Woiwode, and Joyce Carol Oates - as he would an assignment by one of his students. "Often, " Charles Johnson says in his introduction, "the effect is shocking - he said that about John Updike? - but it is a testament to Gardner's professionalism that publicity and public acclaim never blinded him to the basic question every reviewer and critic must ask: What exactly do we have here?" That deceptively simple question is asked insistently throughout many of the pieces collected here, so that the reader too sees the craft and skill of some of America's greatest writers at work. In other essays, Gardner turns his extraordinary intelligence to subjects ranging from fairy tales and religion to King Arthur and Walt Disney. Chock full of insights and opinions, making it essential reading for anyone interested in American literature, On Writers and Writing is also an invaluable contribution to our understanding of John Gardner.

Reseña del editor

On Writers and Writing brings together Gardners essays on literature for the first time. In piece after piece he explains how he separates novelistic wheat from chaff, genuine fiction from fakery. . All my life, John Gardner wrote weeks before his death in a motorcycle accident, Ive lived flat-out. As a motorcycle racer, chemist, writer I was never cautious. Gardners evaluations of his fellow writers are equally flat-out: often warm, occasionally shocking, always full of passion and insight. On Writers and Writing brings together Gardners essays on literature for the first time. In piece after piece he explains how he separates novelistic wheat from chaff, genuine fiction from fakery. A consummate teacher, Gardner examines contemporary writersBellow, Nabokov, Roth, Cheever, Woiwode, Oates, Updike, and other major authorswith the same critical but generous eye with which he graded his students writing assignments. In other essays Gardner examines influential storytelling that ranges from King Arthur to Walt Disney. Here we see the skill of some of Americas greatest writers laid bare by a fellow craftsman, making On Writers and Writing essential reading for anyone interested in American literature.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Perseus Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0201483386
• ISBN 13: 9780201483383
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 320