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A review by cnorbury
The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner
3.0
A book such as this and the one I read just before it--"Building Great Sentences," by Brooks Landon--make me feel as though I've barely climbed onto the bottom rung of the ladder of skill and craft it takes to become a writer ... and I've published a book and two magazine articles!
Even though this book is dated (written in 1983) and Gardner primarily discusses literary fiction, he hits on some fatal flaws of young (meaning new, not chronologically young) writers. His references to many writers I've not heard of or read makes me think I should read everything by those authors to fully understand the points he makes when using their work as examples to be learned from.
It probably helps a reader to have an English degree or MFA to fully understand the subtleties of his thoughts, but even I found many useful pieces of advice to ponder, and I don't have an English degree or MFA.
Even though this book is dated (written in 1983) and Gardner primarily discusses literary fiction, he hits on some fatal flaws of young (meaning new, not chronologically young) writers. His references to many writers I've not heard of or read makes me think I should read everything by those authors to fully understand the points he makes when using their work as examples to be learned from.
It probably helps a reader to have an English degree or MFA to fully understand the subtleties of his thoughts, but even I found many useful pieces of advice to ponder, and I don't have an English degree or MFA.