Category: Reading

Best American Essays

I can enjoy these essays as well as study the structure the authors used to achieve their effects.

Speed of a Novel. Middlemarch

More action with shorter sequels is the rule in commercial fiction these days, but I mustn’t forget that the sequels must be full enough to make the skein of actions sensibly linked.

Reading Appreciation Class

One lady shook her head and said to me, “I wanted to ask him (the teacher) why don’t we read any stories that are happy”

Novel Form

Novels require suspense about the outcome between a determined person and a formidable obstacle. If the story cannot be cast in that shape, then another mode of telling the story is required

Reaction to Vicar of Wakefield

The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goldsmith’s novel is a child of the Age of Reason. It’s much too heavily weighed to the intellect. It devolved into talking heads. Goldsmith has many useful and provocative insights, in the logical domain which is all-important to him. The Vicar provides…

Thomas Wolfe’s House

After Biltmore on Saturday, Kris and I walked in downtown Asheville Sunday morning and early afternoon. Great restaurants, street vendors, and specialty stores. Thomas Wolfe’s childhood house was in easy walking distance. He populated Look Homeward Angel with characters drawn from the boarding house his mother ran and the town he lived in. After it…

Louisa May Alcott

Reading has always brought me pleasure, but I came to enjoy writing only after many years. It fascinates me how writers came to their calling. On Amazon Prime the other night, I watched the American Masters biographical documentary of Louisa May Alcott. She was much different and more complex than my imaginings. Her history was…