How Fiction Works by James Wood (PDF)

Description

In the tradition of E. M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel and Milan Kundera’s The Art of the Novel, James Wood’s How Fiction Works is a scintillating study of the magic of fiction–an analysis of its main elements and a celebration of its lasting power. Here one of the most prominent and stylish critics of our time looks into the machinery of storytelling to ask some fundamental questions: What do we mean when we say we “know” a fictional character? What constitutes a telling detail? When is a metaphor successful? Is Realism realistic? Why do some literary conventions become dated while others stay fresh?James Wood ranges widely, from Homer to Make Way for Ducklings, from the Bible to John le Carré, and his book is both a study of the techniques of fiction-making and an alternative history of the novel. Playful and profound, How Fiction Works will be enlightening to writers, readers, and anyone else interested in what happens on the page.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Unlike some books on writing, How Fiction Works takes a larger view of the subject. As such, it really does make the reader think about writing, how writing works, and, of course, how to improve one’s own writing. Rather than reading it straight through, I have found myself savoring this volume and gaining valuable insights in every section. Two thumbs up.

⭐…sorry about that title, though having typed it, it causes me to think that James Wood would never come up with such word-play and good, I suppose, for him.He does take Barthes to serious task in quoting Barthes’ 1966 observation that narrative represents nothing and that a novel is, in terms of narrative, “language alone, the adventure of language, the unceasing celebration of its coming.” Even if Barthes is wrong, he almost proves his point in writing so beautifully about language itself.Here’s Wood himself, almost as good: “I think that novels tend to fail not when the characters are not vivid or deep enough, but when the novel in question has failed to teach us how to adapt to its conventions, has failed to manage a specific hunger for its own characters, its own reality level.” I’m not sure that “reality level” would be less clumsy if it were just “world,” by maybe Wood is trying to caress, or castigate, some part of David Shields here.Wood is well read and reads well. He’s helped enormously by having a fine ear and eye for the fine analysis by others, from Virginia Woolf to Brigid Lowe (on the very notion of whether fiction is responsible for providing some kind of proof about the world).His own writing is never less than competent; even if he doesn’t know where to put “only,” as a modifier, as in “it only needs to ask the right questions,” or hears a “hiss” in this (well, there is a hiss in “this” but not in this, which is what he quotes: “”What, quite unmanned in folly?”).He also quotes the same George Eliot words twice. Nice words, but mostly a reminder that this book was no doubt put together from separate essays and neither Wood nor his editors read the book itself carefully enough to avoid such repetition (of this: “Art is the nearest thing to life; it is a mode of amplifying experience and extending our contact with our fellow-men beyond the bounds of our personal lot.”).”How Fiction Works” doesn’t “read like a novel.” It’s not supposed to. But it’s more involving than most fiction, which may not be saying much, but it’s saying something. Something that would be depressing if this book weren’t so celebratory, in its way, of what is often good in our fiction and why fiction is important (the novel being “the highest example of subtle interrelatedness that man has discovered,” D. H. Lawrence, not quoted by Wood).

⭐Full of useful examples, including one of the best analyses of omniscient narration/voice I have seen.

⭐The retro cover says it all. Farrar, Straus knew that it had the next big thing and that the next big thing consisted of a return to the best of the past. The book is receiving a great deal of attention, confirming their prescience.How Fiction Works is a study of something that is very old-fashioned these days: craft. It is an examination of key elements of fiction and how they are most fully utilized by skilled writers. The vast majority of the writers examined here are canonical ones–another old-fashioned touch. The book is also cognizant of the nuances of narrative history and (a more modern touch) draws on popular culture for key insights. In short, this is a delightful, perceptive “book” book. First and foremost, it is an exceptional read. It is opinionated (though not abusive or flippant) and is a nice example of something that many modern students may never have seen before–judicial criticism. Frye famously argued that judicial criticism is passé, now that we realize that literary “quality” is like the stock market. Particular authors’ “stock” rises and falls, depending on generational interests, so we should not concern ourselves with evaluative judgments. That is all very nice, except for the fact that reviewers, referees, acquisition editors and agents are forced to make evaluative judgments and in a world in which 800,000 books are published annually, readers seek help and advice from putative experts.The book takes part of its inspiration from E. M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel, an interesting little book that has enjoyed some influence. How Fiction Works goes well beyond Forster (sometimes on issues which Forster is associated with specifically, e.g., the distinction between `flat’ and `round’ characters). This is a book for both critics and practitioners. It wears its erudition lightly, in the English mode, but its thoughts are often weighty and its insights acute (e.g. the notion that the French are suspicious of realism because of the function of the preterite in their language).The book is a must read for teachers and students of narrative, both for the importance of its arguments and for its function as an exemplar of what once functioned as “criticism” and might so function once again.

⭐Being a Masters in English and Creative Writing program; this is a nice addition to my school textbooks and great for reference.

⭐It says so much that I came to Jame Wood so late. I’d been reading Martin Amis and the rest for a long time before I even heard of him. Wood is humane, perceptive, not interested in gleeful hatchet-jobs on the second-rate or pointless discussions of private life. (It’s so much easier to talk about Hemingway’s hunting trips than it is to talk about which books are actually worth reading, and why.Wood is also not interested in showing off his cleverness by talking up “unjustly neglected” writers. He focuses on the big names and talks carefully about what makes them worth reading. Few, if any rivals.

⭐I bought this paperback book to use for my studies on creative writing and I like to flick through my reference books, of which I have many. Unfortunately, this book came with deckle edges (see images) and I cannot actually see anywhere on this webpage, or even on the book itself, that it was advertised as such. A smooth edge on a book allows you to flick through page by page when looking for a particular page but with deckle edging that doesn’t work out so well; not at all really.As I haven’t actually used the book yet, or read it, as it only arrived today, I cannot tell you as to how valuable it is as a research tool, or not. The print is large enough and clear, and the paper somewhat old-fashioned in texture but not in a bad way.There is a rather limited list of contents at the front (see image) and yet, within the ‘chapters’, there is numbering which breaks the chapters into sections without any mention of why: no subheadings. See image. According to the contents page, page number (33) comes under the ‘Narration’ chapter, and yet there are two breaks on page (33) numbered 26 and 27. If a writer is going to do that, number paragraph breaks, then there needs to be some explanation as to why, e.g. subheadings. There is an Index at the back which refers to page numbers only. It all seems very odd. Anyway, you have been warned.

⭐Concise and masterfully distilled take on novel as an art form. Never pretentious, down to concrete examples anyone can enjoy with a multitude of “yes!” and “aha!” it walks through (one narrative of) the history of the novel in a way that leaves something to find for anyone.This is not a tome to be studied for ages, rather like Kurt Cobain or the Sex Pistols would throw irresistible short riffs on aspects of a good novel, which then linger as literary hooks, getting you downloading literary classics to your already overgrown pile of reading, which you will now read with opened eyes.Damn this was good.

⭐Woods is one of the best contemporary critics. You don’t always agree with him, but he always makes you think. For this book to work best, you have to engage with it and think for yourself too.

⭐Read this in preparation for my MA in Creative Writing. I agreed with lots of points and disagreed with others but he includes good examples to back up his arguments.

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