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donasbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Instagram Review: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_568xWAz-E/
This book doesn't do so well with the readers and I can see why. This book is a slog. It is dense as pea soup. I can't count the number of times I found myself snapping awake and trying to toss this book across the room in terror. So why did I stick with it, you might ask? Well, it was kind of worth it.
This book contains a lot of great information. I really hate the organization and the formatting, but I love the form. I know, figure that one out. What I mean is, Yagoda relies a great deal for his content on interviews with a slew of successful writers in a number of fields, which he presents side-by-side. In a book about voice, you receive exposure to a dozen or more unique voices in close proximity, often and subsequently. The form of Sound on the Page is clever, however you look at it, and you will learn, being exposed to it.
Yagoda's central idea through the book has to do with what he calls "middle style." If a naked voice like Hemingway's is at one end of the spectrum and an ostentatious voice like Joyce's is the other end, Yagoda argues the "middle style" is the most commercially appealing. He encourages writers to simply be aware of this balance when cultivating their own voice.
And yet, spend five seconds reading Yagoda's prose and it becomes obvious his own style gravitates nowhere near the middle. His own voice is ostentatious enough to have earned him criticisms of snobbishness and pretentiousness in other reviews. (I'm not judging. I get the same criticisms for my natural voice.)
So if a heavy literary voice bothers you, you may not like this book. But if you want to learn about voice, reading a book written in an obvious voice might not be the worst place to start.
I hope you are all taking care of yourselves and each other. Thank you to the parents-turned-teachers and the front line! <3
This book doesn't do so well with the readers and I can see why. This book is a slog. It is dense as pea soup. I can't count the number of times I found myself snapping awake and trying to toss this book across the room in terror. So why did I stick with it, you might ask? Well, it was kind of worth it.
This book contains a lot of great information. I really hate the organization and the formatting, but I love the form. I know, figure that one out. What I mean is, Yagoda relies a great deal for his content on interviews with a slew of successful writers in a number of fields, which he presents side-by-side. In a book about voice, you receive exposure to a dozen or more unique voices in close proximity, often and subsequently. The form of Sound on the Page is clever, however you look at it, and you will learn, being exposed to it.
Yagoda's central idea through the book has to do with what he calls "middle style." If a naked voice like Hemingway's is at one end of the spectrum and an ostentatious voice like Joyce's is the other end, Yagoda argues the "middle style" is the most commercially appealing. He encourages writers to simply be aware of this balance when cultivating their own voice.
And yet, spend five seconds reading Yagoda's prose and it becomes obvious his own style gravitates nowhere near the middle. His own voice is ostentatious enough to have earned him criticisms of snobbishness and pretentiousness in other reviews. (I'm not judging. I get the same criticisms for my natural voice.)
So if a heavy literary voice bothers you, you may not like this book. But if you want to learn about voice, reading a book written in an obvious voice might not be the worst place to start.
I hope you are all taking care of yourselves and each other. Thank you to the parents-turned-teachers and the front line! <3
lukas_wm's review
5.0
I first read pieces of it for a writing class, and after the class was over it ended up on my "to read" shelf. The author attempts to define, survey, and categorize writing style though both inspection of texts and insightful conversations with an amazing selection of writers. Not just popular and literary fiction writers, but critics, journalists, poets, humorists and writers of most every stripe and color are interviewed discussing their own works and style and the style and works of their influences (and counter-influences as well.)
I could have ended this review with the clichéd "...and it changed the way I...", but instead I will say that as a reader it fascinated me to watch linguistic gymnastics of an author’s style analyzed down to the separate movements that a page, a paragraph, and even a sentence take to land. As a fledgling writer, I found it more inspiring and interesting than any navel gazing “on writing” book. The focus was not on how, but on what. What does style mean, what goes into constructing it.
I could have ended this review with the clichéd "...and it changed the way I...", but instead I will say that as a reader it fascinated me to watch linguistic gymnastics of an author’s style analyzed down to the separate movements that a page, a paragraph, and even a sentence take to land. As a fledgling writer, I found it more inspiring and interesting than any navel gazing “on writing” book. The focus was not on how, but on what. What does style mean, what goes into constructing it.
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