March 12, 2008

Some Notes on How Fiction Works

I got my copy of Wood's How Fiction Works from the Book Depository a couple of days ago and in between finishing He Knew He Was Right and The Maltese Falcon and starting Middlemarch and An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, I have managed to read the whole thing--not nearly as hard as it might have been, given how brief and, ultimately, shallow a text it is (hence the title of this post, meant to imply that Wood does not really deserve his title!). Full review to come as part of my 'series' on "books about books." The short version is: I'm underwhelmed, and also disappointed, given how smart and even moving I have found some of Wood's more careful criticism (yes, moving, and how often can we say that about literary criticism?).

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