A review by bookishwendy
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
4.0
Not to be confused with a "how-to" guide for either reading or writing, Francine Prose's book is more like an extended "suggested reading" list of linked mini-essays on different aspects of fiction-writing craft: chapters include "Sentences," "Dialogue," "Narration," and "Gestures" just to name a few. Taking examples from classic literature and many lesser known works (like the works of Isaac Babel and Henry Green, which I am now in the process of hunting down), Prose discusses how various aspects of writing can be learned by reading, yet she is careful to avoid listing writing "rules"--because, as she points out, all "rules" have been successfully broken. She points to Chekov in particular, who notoriously and continuously violates the "don't jump between the view points of different characters" rule, the "make sure the story has a theme or point" rule, and even his own famous "never introduce a loaded gun in act III" rule (see the story "Volodya").
Of course, most of us realize that we're not Chekov. Prose addresses the universal writerly sense of worthlessness too, in the final chapter titled "Reading for Courage," in which she advocates reading the classics in order to "remind you how capacious and stretchy fiction is, how much it can accommodate" and that there's always a place for unique, rule-breaking narratives. Sure, she's preaching to the choir, and yes, at some points her mini-essay stream-of-conscience styling loses itself in occasional meandering rhetoric, but this was--for me anyway--a right book at the right time.
Of course, most of us realize that we're not Chekov. Prose addresses the universal writerly sense of worthlessness too, in the final chapter titled "Reading for Courage," in which she advocates reading the classics in order to "remind you how capacious and stretchy fiction is, how much it can accommodate" and that there's always a place for unique, rule-breaking narratives. Sure, she's preaching to the choir, and yes, at some points her mini-essay stream-of-conscience styling loses itself in occasional meandering rhetoric, but this was--for me anyway--a right book at the right time.