Reading Like a Writer

Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

Category: Literary Criticism Grade: A-

Prose is a prolific writer, having written a couple of dozen books - fiction, non-fiction and children's books. I have to be honest and say that I'd never really heard of her or read any of work. That'll probably change. I saw of review of this one and decided to give it a try. What I found is well-written and very interesting description of how books are put together. The book is dead-on with its sub-title -- "A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them".

In addition to her writing, the author has spent a lot of time in the classroom teaching literature and conducting writing workshops. She's a proponent of "close reading" - basically a belief that you should pay attention to what you're reading in deep details - e.g. that the words are as important as the concept. Normally, I'm put of by this style of reading. If you've followed this blog, you know that I love to read. To me, books are entertaining, informative, distracting, immersive and so on. A good book should make you feel like you're reading a good book - that simple. Too often, especially in school, we're taught that its important to understand a book than to enjoy it. This tends to lead to children, and eventually adults, who never pick up a book for pleasure.

Well, Prose manages to turn that belief on its ear a little bit. The chapter headings give you an idea of what you're in for -- Words, Sentences, Paragraphs, Narration, Character, Dialogue, Gesture and wrapping up with Learning from Chekhov. What should really be pretty dull, turns out to grab you almost from the beginning and, just as she predicted, turns you in to a better reader. While you don't lose the ability to feel the power or beauty of a book, Prose gives you the tools to understand why. It doesn't hurt that her own writing style is excellent - I'll be looking for some of her fiction next time I'm in a book store.

Prose provides lots of examples from all kinds of sources that illustrate her points. She ranges all over the map from Chekhov and Tolstoy to Raymond Chandler. At the end of the book, she has a list of "Books to Be Read Immediately". To be honest, its not likely that I'll start working my way through her list. Its also not likely that I'll give up reading entertaining hacks like Dean Koontz. Thanks to Prose, however, I'll least be able to tell the difference between hacks and authors.