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A review by donasbooks
The Sound on the Page: Great Writers Talk about Style and Voice in Writing by Ben Yagoda
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