Author: Francine Prose File Type: pdf Long before there were creative-writing workshops and degrees, how did aspiring writers learn to write? By reading the work of their predecessors and contemporaries, says Francine Prose.In Reading Like a Writer, Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters. She reads the work of the very best writersDostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhovand discovers why their work has endured. She takes pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel she is deeply moved by the brilliant characterization in George Eliots Middlemarch. She looks to John Le Carre for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue, to Flannery OConnor for the cunning use of the telling detail, and to James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield for clever examples of how to employ gesture to create character. She cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which literature is crafted.Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart.From Publishers WeeklySavard has a pleasant voice, a good vocal range and the important ability to emphasize for clarity and drama. Shes especially good at the long and very varied quotes Prose has selected to illustrate the elements of close reading, i.e., paying careful attention to words, sentences, paragraphs, narration, character, dialogue, details and gesture (her chapter headings). Prose has taught writing classes for more than 20 years and published 14 books. To be a good writeror a good readershe argues, you must develop the ability to focus on language and explore line by line how the best writers use each element of language to create unique and powerful people and stories. She pulls out words and phrases from various authors to show us, for example, precisely how Flannery OConnor creates the literary equivalent of a fireworks display while Alice Munro writes with the simplicity and beauty of a Shaker box. This is a an excellent listen that belongs in any readers or writers library next to Strunk and Whites The Elements of Style. Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. From School Library JournalAdultHigh SchoolLife is precious, and much of that preciousness lies in the details the sights, the sounds, the scents we too often ignore in our busy lives. Prose makes a superb application of that concept for readers of fiction. To know how the great writers create their magic, one needs to engage in a close reading of the masters, for that is precisely what successful writers have done for thousands of years. College programs in creative writing and summer workshops serve a purpose, but they can never replace a careful reading of the likes of Austen, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Salinger, Tolstoy, and Woolf. In this excellent guide, Prose explains exactly what she means by close reading, drawing attention to the brick and mortar of outstanding narratives words, sentences, paragraphs, character, dialogue, details, and more. In the process, she does no less than escort readers to a heightened level of appreciation of great literature. Many will want to go to the shelves to read again, or for the first time, the books she discusses. And to aid them, she thoughtfully adds a list at the end Books to Be Read Immediately.Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. The trick to writing, Prose writes, is readingcarefully, deliberately and slowly. While this might seem like a no-brainer, Prose (_Blue Angel_ A Changed Man) masterfully meditates on how quality reading informs great writing, which will warm the cold, jaded hearts of even the most frustrated, unappreciated and unpublished writers. Chapters treat the nuts and bolts of writing (words, sentences, paragraphs) as well as issues of craft (narration, character, dialogue), all of which Prose discusses using story or novel excerpts. This is where the book truly shines Prose is remarkably egalitarian in choosing exemplars of fiction David Gates, Denis Johnson, John le Carre and ZZ Packer, for instance, are considered as seriously as Chekhov, Melville, Flaubert or Babel. Prose insists that literature not only breaks the rules, but makes us realize that there are none, and urges writers to re-read the classics (Chekhov, especially) and view reading as something that might move or delight you. Proses guide to reading and writing belongs on every writers bookshelf alongside E.M. Forsters Aspects of the Novel. (Aug.) br Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. From School Library JournalAdultHigh SchoolLife is precious, and much of that preciousness lies in the details the sights, the sounds, the scents we too often ignore in our busy lives. Prose makes a superb application of that concept for readers of fiction. To know how the great writers create their magic, one needs to engage in a close reading of the masters, for that is precisely what successful writers have done for thousands of years. College programs in creative writing and summer workshops serve a purpose, but they can never replace a careful reading of the likes of Austen, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Salinger, Tolstoy, and Woolf. In this excellent guide, Prose explains exactly what she means by close reading, drawing attention to the brick and mortar of outstanding narratives words, sentences, paragraphs, character, dialogue, details, and more. In the process, she does no less than escort readers to a heightened level of appreciation of great literature. Many will want to go to the shelves to read again, or for the first time, the books she discusses. And to aid them, she thoughtfully adds a list at the end Books to Be Read Immediately._Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA_ br Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.