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A review by slcrow
The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art by Joyce Carol Oates
5.0
I'm not really sure where the last hundred or so pages of this book went. I sat down to read it while hitting a dead patch in my writing this afternoon and ended up finishing the book as Oates took me along with her train of thought. I cursed myself the entire time for having checked this book out of the library rather than buying it, thereby not being able to underline and comment and make a general conversational mess of the text (I mean, I could have, but the library probably would have gotten a little pissy with me when I returned the book). As I read, I found myself constantly conversing with Joyce, thinking, "OHMYGOD you do that too!? That makes me feel SO MUCH BETTER!" constantly.
Since graduating from college, I've found myself in a bit of a dry place as a writer, with no community to speak of and no feeling of camaraderie with anyone who could really understand what I was going through. I've felt like something of an alien, not sure whether these weird "working people" could really get what was going on in my brain. But then, Joyce came along and made me feel like I wasn't such a freak and a loser, if only because she spoke so well to my own insecurities. To me, JCO is this prolific, untouchable goddess of literature, churning out more product in a year than I'll probably create in an entire lifetime. She didn't even really seem entirely real, in spite of the fact that I'd been reading her since high school (or maybe because of that), but this story fleshes her out so nicely in her writer persona in the way that her memoir fleshed her out for me as an individual. It was pretty fantastic to see her reference her predecessors and inspirations as well--writers that had an impact for her who also expressed their own thoughts and anxieties.
So while I've read ruminations of distant writers on their inadequacy and issues before, JCO's encouragement and insecurities were particularly poignant for me. This may not be the case for everyone, but I really felt that her words were useful for me. I'll definitely be buying this one in the near future, and encourage writers to look this book up. From one writer to another, I can tell you it helps to feel, even peripherally, as if someone else--especially someone of her prolific experience--understands your issues and shares your inspirations.
Since graduating from college, I've found myself in a bit of a dry place as a writer, with no community to speak of and no feeling of camaraderie with anyone who could really understand what I was going through. I've felt like something of an alien, not sure whether these weird "working people" could really get what was going on in my brain. But then, Joyce came along and made me feel like I wasn't such a freak and a loser, if only because she spoke so well to my own insecurities. To me, JCO is this prolific, untouchable goddess of literature, churning out more product in a year than I'll probably create in an entire lifetime. She didn't even really seem entirely real, in spite of the fact that I'd been reading her since high school (or maybe because of that), but this story fleshes her out so nicely in her writer persona in the way that her memoir fleshed her out for me as an individual. It was pretty fantastic to see her reference her predecessors and inspirations as well--writers that had an impact for her who also expressed their own thoughts and anxieties.
So while I've read ruminations of distant writers on their inadequacy and issues before, JCO's encouragement and insecurities were particularly poignant for me. This may not be the case for everyone, but I really felt that her words were useful for me. I'll definitely be buying this one in the near future, and encourage writers to look this book up. From one writer to another, I can tell you it helps to feel, even peripherally, as if someone else--especially someone of her prolific experience--understands your issues and shares your inspirations.