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A review by corneliadolian
How Fiction Works by James Wood
3.0
This book started out strong and promising, and I thought it was going to cover the elements of the novel in its many incarnations. However, it presented a very narrow view of the novel (and fiction in general) and rarely used any examples of texts written in the last 50 years. For instance, when it discussed point of view, it only really discussed the third person. I was hoping for more. I was hoping for broader examples, more allowance for different styles and ways of constructing a novel.
I think I would've found this book more helpful and interesting had I been an avid reader of D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Henry James, Flaubert and Dostoyevsky. Because I do not regularly read any of those authors (and yes, I guess that's my fault/a disadvantage of my own making), I didn't get as much from the examples as I could have, and eventually found them tedious and dull.
I think I would've found this book more helpful and interesting had I been an avid reader of D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Henry James, Flaubert and Dostoyevsky. Because I do not regularly read any of those authors (and yes, I guess that's my fault/a disadvantage of my own making), I didn't get as much from the examples as I could have, and eventually found them tedious and dull.