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patlo's Reviews (1.32k)
I picked this book up as a free Kindle offering a week ago. I'm very glad I did.
Past the introduction, which (probably quite rightly) is a diatribe against the cost of an MFA program in a traditional school, the book is five chapters from five writers describing the craft of writing a genre. The first chapter on writing fiction (followed by personal essay and memoir; magazine writing; poetry; playwriting). The fiction chapter was quite thorough if mechanical, but a no-nonsense approach that will make an excellent resource for underway writers. The chapters also contain reading lists, pointers to other writing books, and other excellent resources.
Very nice work on the mechanical side of writing.
Past the introduction, which (probably quite rightly) is a diatribe against the cost of an MFA program in a traditional school, the book is five chapters from five writers describing the craft of writing a genre. The first chapter on writing fiction (followed by personal essay and memoir; magazine writing; poetry; playwriting). The fiction chapter was quite thorough if mechanical, but a no-nonsense approach that will make an excellent resource for underway writers. The chapters also contain reading lists, pointers to other writing books, and other excellent resources.
Very nice work on the mechanical side of writing.
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This is my second Kerouac, after On the Road many years back, and my first in audiobook form. It might be the best way to hear Kerouac's beat poetry in the prose, to hear them spoken:
"... All alone and free in the soft sands of the beach by the sigh of the sea... "
and so many of those two-word pitter-patterns.
Kerouac's characters, heavily based on the poets of the San Francisco Renaissance of the 50s, shine - Japhy (Gary Snyder) in particular; in fact the whole story is a love-song to Japhy, written as Kerouac is trying on Buddhism as one tries on a coat to see if it fits. It does, and it doesn't; it's at least ill-fitting for the author in this story.
It's been a long time since I read On the Road, and I remember liking it better than Dharma Bums, but I'll definitely read - or probably hear - more Kerouac, to see how he matured and changed and grew.
Hoo!
"... All alone and free in the soft sands of the beach by the sigh of the sea... "
and so many of those two-word pitter-patterns.
Kerouac's characters, heavily based on the poets of the San Francisco Renaissance of the 50s, shine - Japhy (Gary Snyder) in particular; in fact the whole story is a love-song to Japhy, written as Kerouac is trying on Buddhism as one tries on a coat to see if it fits. It does, and it doesn't; it's at least ill-fitting for the author in this story.
It's been a long time since I read On the Road, and I remember liking it better than Dharma Bums, but I'll definitely read - or probably hear - more Kerouac, to see how he matured and changed and grew.
Hoo!
I've never read a graphic novel, and I'm thrilled to have read this one first.
Shaun Tan's 'The Arrival' is completely graphic, wordless. It is the story of a young father whom leaves his wife and daughter to take a long journey to a wholly different country so that he can support them. The imagery is rich and tender, truly amazing. To emphasize the entirely confusing world that immigrants enter, the graphics are completely foreign, unintelligible, overwhelming. It is easy to identify with the immigrant's predicament, and to root for him to find a place, friends, a home.
I cannot recommend this work of art highly enough.
I would especially hope that those who reduce immigration politics to simplistic chatter, would read this novel and put themselves into the main character's hat and shoes, and think carefully about what they might do if faced with a similar choice.
Shaun Tan's 'The Arrival' is completely graphic, wordless. It is the story of a young father whom leaves his wife and daughter to take a long journey to a wholly different country so that he can support them. The imagery is rich and tender, truly amazing. To emphasize the entirely confusing world that immigrants enter, the graphics are completely foreign, unintelligible, overwhelming. It is easy to identify with the immigrant's predicament, and to root for him to find a place, friends, a home.
I cannot recommend this work of art highly enough.
I would especially hope that those who reduce immigration politics to simplistic chatter, would read this novel and put themselves into the main character's hat and shoes, and think carefully about what they might do if faced with a similar choice.
3.5stars. Grand and sweeping, but not much momentum driving the reader to the next section. Fascinating, but a bit plodding. Feels like it would have been better either 35% shorter, or as 4 full volumes going crazy deep....