spicygeek's review against another edition
2.0
I liked learning on different authors and books that I should read. That's about all I got out if this. And don't use metaphors. He said that enough times. In all I was disappointed with this book and expected a lot more. It seemed more like him rambling about his life than trying to inform people on why they should write like this book was supposed to do
scifi_stepmom's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent. This book is a pleasure to read whether or not you are interested in doing writing of your own.
llatai's review
5.0
I was fortunate enough to purchase a used copy of this book from an online retailer, complete with cynical-scolding scribblings of disagreement along the margins in nearly every essay. (Nearly. It was easy to tell where the previous owner/reader gave up, as the unsolicited Hot Takes abruptly stopped three essays from the end. Here's a super cool idea: if you hate a book so much that you intend to deface it so thoroughly, make sure you also scribble a link to your blog post/review on the inside of the front cover so your unwilling audience can feel like they have some faculty in the decision.)
I wrote my own notes in the margins of this book. In pen. Which is fine, because I'm not going to sell it to a used bookstore. I can't promise it won't end up there when I die, but this is already getting a little too pessimistic/existential for a casual Goodreads review, so let's agree to abandon that trajectory. Flipping back through my notes, the general sentiment I seemed to express - the general feeling I experienced while reading this work - was that of being witnessed. Seen/heard/known.
Let me put this another way: my college writing program ruined writing for me - which, for me, is no different from saying that it slowly and steadily devoured my soul. I went to college for writing because writing was what I loved and what I felt compelled to do with my life and my time, and it didn't turn out the way I thought/hoped it would.
This book helped me understand why. It also helped me consider all the ways I might recover what I've lost.
Read this if you can't remember why you bother.
I wrote my own notes in the margins of this book. In pen. Which is fine, because I'm not going to sell it to a used bookstore. I can't promise it won't end up there when I die, but this is already getting a little too pessimistic/existential for a casual Goodreads review, so let's agree to abandon that trajectory. Flipping back through my notes, the general sentiment I seemed to express - the general feeling I experienced while reading this work - was that of being witnessed. Seen/heard/known.
Let me put this another way: my college writing program ruined writing for me - which, for me, is no different from saying that it slowly and steadily devoured my soul. I went to college for writing because writing was what I loved and what I felt compelled to do with my life and my time, and it didn't turn out the way I thought/hoped it would.
This book helped me understand why. It also helped me consider all the ways I might recover what I've lost.
Read this if you can't remember why you bother.
janetvande's review
5.0
You've read all the writing books you're supposed to. You've followed the plotting script to the letter. But something is still missing from your story, and you know it. John Rember's memoir-as-teaching aid will probably come off more as therapy than technique class, and that's my guess what he was going for in the first place. MFA in a Box will help you unclog your creative drains and get to depths you were afraid of going to before, and touch subject matter you have been hiding away in dusty boxes in your brain for years. Read Stephen King, follow James Scott Bell's outlines but meditate upon John Rember.
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