On Writers & Writing
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The classic work on the art of fiction by the "refreshingly unpredictable" novelist and literary critic (Publishers Weekly)
In this posthumously published collection of his essays and reviews, acclaimed novelist John Gardner discusses the craft of fiction writing, taking to task some of his best-known contemporaries in the process. Gardner criticizes some for writing disingenuous fiction, and commends others who produce literature that acts as a life-affirming force. He offers insights into and exacting critiques on such writers as Vladimir Nabokov, John Updike, Saul Bellow, and John Cheever, while addressing his personal influences and delivering broad-ranging observations on literary culture.
Provocative and poignant, On Writers & Writing is a must-read for both aspiring writers and careful readers of American literature.
This ebook features a new illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Popular novelist, critic, teacher and classics scholar, Gardner, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1982, insisted that fiction should be moral and life-affirming. These 29 essays and reviews, gathered from the New York Times Book Review , Antaeus , Saturday Review and elsewhere, are sprinkled with sharp put-downs. For example, Gardner calls John Updike's characters ``hypersensitive whiners,'' deems Walker Percy's novel Lancelot ``typical bad art . . . pompous'' and labels Graham Greene's The Comedians as entertainment that ``makes a casual pass at art.'' Gardner is refreshingly unpredictable, admiring such writers as John Cheever, Italo Calvino, Larry Woiwode, William Gass and Lewis Carroll. His high critical standards and gimlet insights shine through. Included are a prickly autobiographical sketch (``Cartoons''), the marvelous essay ``What Writers Do'' and a short story ``Julius Caesar and the Werewolf.''
