On Becoming a Novelist

Amazon.com

Picture the poor, young, serious-fiction writer. He toils alone at a pace not so different from that of Lincoln Tunnel traffic at rush hour in New York. His spouse has a "real" job, or perhaps he has a trust fund. His college friends are cashing in on their dot-coms and wondering if he's ever going to join the real world. He is not hell-bent on publication; he is trying to write "serious, honest fiction, the kind of novel that readers will find they enjoy reading more than once, the kind of fiction likely to survive." He's likely to have no idea whether he's succeeding. Nobody understands him.

Well, almost nobody. John Gardner understands him. Gardner's sympathetic On Becoming a Novelist is the novelist's ultimate comfort food--better than macaroni and cheese, better than chocolate. Gardner, a fiction writer himself (Grendel), knows in his bones the desperate questioning of a writer who's not sure he's up to the task. He recognizes the validation that comes with being published, just as he believes that "for a true novel there is generally no substitute for slow, slow baking." Gardner also has strong feelings about what kinds of workshops help (and whom they help), and what kinds hinder. But a full half of Gardner's book is devoted to an exploration of the writer's nature. The storyteller's intelligence, he says, "is composed of several qualities, most of which, in normal people, are signs of either immaturity or incivility." In addition, a writer needs "verbal sensitivity, accuracy of eye," and "an almost demonic compulsiveness." But wait--there's more. A writer needs to be driven, and to be driven, he says insightfully, "a psychological wound is helpful." --Jane Steinberg

Book Description

On Becoming a Novelist contains the wisdom accumulated during John Gardner's distinguished twenty-year career as a fiction writer and creative writing teacher. With elegance, humor, and sophistication, Gardner describes the life of a working novelist; warns what needs to be guarded against, both from within the writer and from without; and predicts what the writer can reasonably expect and what, in general, he or she cannot. "For a certain kind of person," Gardner writes, "nothing is more joyful or satisfying than the life of a novelist." But no other vocation, he is quick to add, is so fraught with professional and spiritual difficulties. Whether discussing the supposed value of writer's workshops, explaining the role of the novelist's agent and editor, or railing against the seductive fruits of literary elitism, On Becoming a Novelist is an indispensable, life-affirming handbook for anyone authentically called to the profession.

Customer Reviews:

Every writer should read this book.......2007-06-20

I first read Gardner's "The Art of Fiction" some years ago. It was a fine book with some sound advice. However, it read too much like a how-to book for my tastes. And the how-to advice seemed a bit too formulaic. Though I am sure it is a fine book for instruction, especially for people who are just starting to look at fiction seriously.

"On Becoming a Novelist" is a different book all together. It deals more with the philosophy and life of writing. It is simply a joy to read. It does not tell you how to write, but instead it addresses, in a very direct way, whether or not you should write.

The forward by Raymond Carver is a good essay in itself. Should I ever find myself in a position to teach writing on any serious level, I will use this book. I wish I had read it sooner.

One of the things I appreciate is the way the book speaks to the seriousness of writing. Now I understand that people write for different reasons, and as a teacher I encourage my students to write and stress the importance of writing in all areas of life. And we often have teacher trainings that encourage teachers to write. Many of my colleagues consider themselves writers. Some even go so far as to say that they "could not live without writing." There are all sorts of writers. But it is the sort of writer that Gardner speaks to is the sort that I wish to become.

Gardner's writer is not a seer. He is not a celebrity. He is a practitioner, a tradesman. And to compare Gardner's writer to most day to day writers is to compare the full time furniture maker to the guy who builds picnic tables out of 2x4s. And of course we need picnic tables.

Every aspiring writer should read this.......2007-02-02

If you're planning on becoming a novelist rather than just writing a novel - and I do believe there's a difference - you must pick up this book. It's 145 pages dedicated to the most common question aspiring writers have:

"Do I have what it takes to be a writer?"

Of course this question doesn't have an easy answer, but John Gardner uses his years of experience as both a writer and teacher and throws in his two cents. The book is divided into four sections:

1. The Writer's Nature. The longest section - it's about half the book. Think of it as a field guide to writers. My one gripe about this is that at times, it's a little too stereotypical - he suggests that if you have a screwed up childhood, you'll make a good writer. I don't agree with this at all, although, looking at the recent slew of trash memoirs, I suppose it's a bit prophetic.

2. The Writer's Training and Education. This covers writing workshops, why they're worth going and how to spot a good one; the benefits and drawbacks to majoring in English or creative writing; what you're going to have do to support yourself so you can write. (Among his suggestions: marry rich.)

3. Publication and Survival. This section does a very competent job explaining the entire publication process, from submission to copyediting to receiving a physical copy of your book. Because the book was written in 1983, a lot of it is twenty years out of date. One of his suggestions is to walk into an editor's office with a copy of your manuscript. I don't think you could get away with that anymore. Even if you managed to get into their office, you'd probably get escorted out of the building.

4. Faith. Maybe the most important part of the book. It reveals the cure for writer's block - writing - and how to keep believing in yourself in the face of countless rejection letters or slow writing or a lack of support.

I can honestly say that I now have a much better grasp on what it's going to take to become a professional writer. Although Gardner can be a pretentious blowhard from time to time, and some of the advice doesn't sound quite right for today, this is probably the best book of its kind out there.

A mix of theory and practice.......2006-10-29

John Gardner doesn't pretend to have all of the answers, and he doesn't lay out a program that will turn anyone into a novelist. He mixes his advice for writers (i.e. do something that you like, learn to spell) with some advice about the culture and business of writing (e.g. how to spot a bad workshop).

The book has the feeling of a master class where the author is talking in the simple terms that only a truly gifted writer feels confident in using because he doesn't have anything to prove to anyone. His advice is frank and to the point, but also mixed with the humility that's he been wrong before.

In all, he says the successful writer is the one who keeps at it and keeps working to improve. The key is to find your own voice and style and develop those, even if teachers or other writers try to turn you into clones of themselves.

Gardner the master.......2006-08-12

Gardner seems always aware that he is a master and he views the readers of his books on craft as students as well as disciples. While he offers much guidance to the novice writer, the book serves best as a reminder that we what we are doing is not some vain hobby, not some time-waster as others may think it to be. This book reminds us that our efforts are worthy of the time spent and that we are not alone in our quest. At the same time that we need stories to excite and inspire us, we need to be reminded of why it is we do what we do. And it's also helpful for us to be reminded of the discipline necessary for our labor. Unfortunately, the author falls into that same creative writing teacher trap of trying to weed out those unworthy. He wants to be sure that in attempting this that we are up to the task. At the same time, that talk can be discouraging to those sensitive writer-types who are by nature filled with self-doubt.

Honest book. No coddling. .......2006-06-19

In the Literary world, the name John Gardner - as author, aesthetic critic, or teacher - evokes strong and contrary reactions, some of praise and admiration; some of the most virulent, strain of anti-academic sentiment. It should come as no surprise that his works of non-fiction, which are a combination of his prose, critique, and instruction, be met with the same contrasting opinions. "On becoming a Novelist" is crafted as a consolation to the aspiring writer, not as a "how to book." It enumerates many of the hardships an aspiring writer will encounter, often the result of the very qualities that predisposes one to writing, without sugarcoating the truth, and in doing so puts the tribulation into perspective. He dares to ask the questions every Creative Writing teacher should ask but doesn't dare: Are you willing to work for this? Do you expect a mote of natural talent to set you apart from the throngs of writers who were considered "good" writers in their class or school? You might not want to be hit with such questions when opening a book that you're hoping will put you on the fast track to fame and fortune, so the negative criticism, while not entirely unfounded, is expected.
"On becoming a novelist" doesn't mislead the prospective reader. All you had to have read is the preface to know whether or not this book was for you: "I write for those who desire, not publication at any cost, but publication one can be proud of...for the beginning novelist who has already figured out that it is far more satisfying to write well then simply to write well enough to get published." For you to continue reading this book when you know full well you are strictly a genre writer (horror, mystery, action, romance) concerned only with entertainment and dollar value is a waste of your time, and if you purchased it, money. And for such a person to review this book would be like an art house intellectual watching an Adam Sandler movie and then slamming it - meaningless. The review says nothing about the movie's comedic value within the context of its genre, comedy, only the predisposition of the reviewer. This is all to say that the harsh criticism received by "On becoming a Novelist" tends to betray the scribers unwillingness to submit to discipline, or inability to recognize the difference between Literary and Genre fiction, a line at times so permeable that some of our best fictions are home in either category; yet at others, cannot possibly be further from each other.
People have a tendency to bring their own baggage to any review. I'm sure many snickered, or responded with some equal gesture of displeasure, at the mention of "Literary" as opposed to "Genre" fiction in the previous paragraph. (Some may well have written me off as a supplicant of Mr. Gardner's camp and therefore stopped paying attention to anything subsequently written, only continuing on the combative impetus to see their premature assumption confirmed). But to write off Gardner's work as stuffy, pendantic, antiquated scrawl is unfair. In his discussion on "Verbal Sensitivity" he establishes the difference between the academic and the writer's sensibility: "Good grades in English may have more to do with the relative competence, sensitivity, and sophistication of the teacher." He goes on to say that aspects of good prose, such as sentence rhythm are not requisite for the alumni, and that often the Sophisticated literati's adherence to rules of grammar, distaste for linguistic change and certain classes of society obscures their ability to recognize true verbal sensitivity, "such as "black kids playing `The Dozens' - piling up ingenious metaphors grammatical or unmixed." He also criticizes university courses and workshops for opting almost exclusively to teach from allegorical fiction because of their facility to instruct on "theme" and "symbolism, while neglecting the quality that actually attracts a reader to a text, memorable characters and their presence in a vivid and continuous setting.
However, Gardner does suggest that the formally educated writer has a better shot of producing a literary work of art because he has been exposed to a broader scope of literary styles, regions, and movements, especially if his peers only know from book-of- the month paperbacks. I fail to see how this is elitist; after all, his view leaves plenty of room for the rustic writer who recognizes his disadvantage and as a result devours the classics. Gardner goes so far as to state that a man schooled only in the lessons of life may still go on to write a great book and become the voice of a people, but he will remain limited in the narratives and topics he'll be able to utilize for his fiction. Demanding meticulous scrutiny of ones choice of words as it accords to the overall image or meaning of a scene or bit of description has nothing to do with academic stuffiness, but everything to do with accuracy, style, and - a characteristic that any true artist is possessed by - the desire to challenge oneself.
Bleak is also often used to describe Gardner's description of the writer's situation. Gardner is not the first to point out the association writers, and the process of writing, have with the solemn and tragic. A cursory look at the authors of works considered great literary accomplishments (remember: we are dealing with `literary fiction') will reveal a veritable gallery of obsessive, compulsive, drug addicted, vice ridden eccentrics. What Gardner has been able to do, and why he is imputed with cries of "cynical', is collate this information with his own life-as-writer experience and explain how the writer (long dead and/or aspiring) manages to persevere in the face, and sometimes because, of debilitating internal and external obstacles.
Unfortunately Gardner's attempt to find a silver lining in the figurative cloud representative of the aspiring writer's career gets misinterpreted. What arrest the reviewer's attention are ideas like a "psychological wound" being beneficial because it "bends the soul inward," or "let no one tell you that all good writers eventually get published." What seem to slip between the crack are lines like "only a talent that doesn't exist at all can't be improved," when he explains that if the writer can compensate for his shortcomings in one department with acumen in another, he can still attain greatness. The entire chapter entitled "Faith" explores the writer's development, explaining how the slumps the writer finds himself in are more often than not the result of a perspective that falls out of focus due to overuse: 1.As an amateur, writing seemed more enjoyable only because you were incapable of recognizing all your mistakes. 2. The process of writing doesn't get easier because learning a handful of tricks to solve common, technical problems unwittingly cause the writer to engage more difficult ones. 3. Writing requires the use of multiple mental processes, which must be understood individually before the writer can trust his instinct to just write from instinct.
Although the lines quoted above adequately challenge the claim that "On Becoming a Novelist" is a pessimistic work, it doesn't discredit all the negative reviews, nor does pessimism account for all the negative reviews. A strong personality, on the side of John Gardner, is the culprit. Aside from stating in the opening that these are his personal opinions based on his experience, John Gardner offers no apologies about his views. I find myself at odds with some of them. His discussion on "literary masks -" the way we detach ourselves and our subject matter from real life through literary techniques - I immediately found interesting. One such mask is labeled "Pollyanna," and its successor, "Dispollyanna." Both are masks that rely on stock, clichéd phrasing and word choice, and Gardner feels they should be done away with. No one will deny that trite devices can cheapen the strongest prose, but where I take issue is to what extent Gardner feels the writer should eradicate a phrase that isn't original. Our relation to our time and place will reflect itself in our writing and the writing of our contemporaries. It would be impossible, and deplorable for posterity's sake, to discount the parlance of a generation of writers simply because it is common; if the choice of words, phrasing, description accords with the concerns of a generation, their use - and possible overuse - is forgivable.
Gardner's views on Editors and Agents I thought surprisingly benevolent, considering what I've read in other books. In the chapter "Publication and Survival" Gardner states, "one should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of editors" and then just a few lines away, "they are often ambitious idealists; they would like nothing better than to discover and publish a great book." He also argues against the belief that editorial emendations are based solely on making a work more commercially viable, believing instead that changes are generally made to make a work the best that it can possibly be within its genre.
Editors as intelligent, best friends, deserving the benefit of the doubt are a stark contrast from the image depicted in other books that deal with publishing, many of which inadvertently, not maliciously, portray editors as temperamental and petty, eager to find any reason to junk your manuscript. Although, it should be mentioned, much of Gardner's accolades are reserved for editors already committed to working with you, I still find the loyalty Gardner attributes to editors hard to believe, being on this side - the unpublished side - of the divide. But it would be rather silly of me to challenge the conclusions Gardner has come to as a result of his own experience in the industry, especially since he doesn't present them as fact. If "On Becoming a Novelist" is read with this much in mind, there is no reason why any writer, regardless of genre should feel slighted. If as an aspiring writer you are able to honestly evaluate your ability and your devotion, based on the contents of this book, to the craft of writing, "On Becoming a Novelist" will either be a permanent fixture on your desk or the milestone that ends your self-deluding, freeing you to find your true calling in life. Either way you benefit.

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Loved It!
Wonderful!
Becoming Jane Austen
Very engaging pop-history woven with lit crit
Ripped off?

Becoming Jane Austen
Jon Spence
Manufacturer: Continuum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1847250467

Book Description

Jane Austen was a great novelist and one of the central figures of English literature, but she herself lived a quiet and uneventful life, mostly in the two Hampshire villages of Steventon and Chawton. Jon Spence's new biography focuses its attention away from the wider literary and intellectual currents that informed her writing and instead concentrates on the immediate influences on her life and work. Becoming Jane Austen shows how Jane Austen's own personal experiences resonated throughout her work, from her juvenilia to Sanditon.

Customer Reviews:

Loved It!.......2007-10-05

I was skeptical about this book when I got it. But I ended up loving it. The information is presented in a way that makes it very interesting. You get to know more than just Jane, you get to know her family and friends too. I would recommend it to any Jane fan.

Wonderful!.......2007-10-05

This is a wonderful book. It also arrived quickly and in perfect condition! Good Work.

Becoming Jane Austen.......2007-09-01

Very good book---I have read 6 other bios on Jane Austen this book was one
of the best.

Very engaging pop-history woven with lit crit.......2007-08-03

Spence is a scholar but here he is writing for the public. He appears to draw heavily from published anthologies of Austen's letters, the Austen family will, etc., rather than primary sources themselves. This is information that readers could have sought out on their own or found in another biography. Where Spence shines is in his inter-weaving of family biography with literary critique, and, perhaps more controversially, his attempts to explicitly link events/people in Austen's life to her fictional characters and senarios.

I would consider this a fairly edgy enterprise relative to the work of "traditional" historians. Still, the discipline has, like others, changed over the past several decades, and not only recognizes the impossibility of objectivity, but allows for more explicit individual interpretation. And in fact, most of Spence's extrapolations are not only fascinating but well-supported; for example, his contention that Austen's own family history laid the groundwork for the three Ward sisters' differing marriages (in Mansfield Park) makes perfect sense. A minority of his contentions appears to have involved a bit too much creative interpretation, but one can simply research those on one's own or come to one's own conclusions.

To read this book is to be impressed by the very fragility of life--especially for childbearing women--in early 19th century England. The book is riddled with so many early (under 30) and childbirth deaths, it appears amazing women agreed to marriage in the first place. But that, of course, is Spence's second achievement: impressing upon us the deeply precarious financial position in which women found themselves, unable to earn their own keep and forced to rely on the support of a brother, husband, or the bequest of a dying relation.

My only problem with the book is the slightly prosaic writing style, the repeated use of slangy words (i.e. tetchy) and the puzzling reliance on second-person address (i.e. "You see.." "You read this and feel..."). I have never read a work by a professional historian to refer directly to readers and not to the general populace ("one feels..." "one can see...").

Novel-like in its readability, thoughtful and unafraid of contention, Becoming Jane Austen deserves a place on the shelf of every English lit or history fan, Austenite or no.

Ripped off?.......2007-06-23

I saw this paperback movie tie-in last night and grabbed it.
I love Jane and am looking forward to the film. I've read a
number of bios of Jane over the years and this one looks
interesting.

However, I have to give a thumbs down to the publisher.
Where are the illustrations that are clearly listed in
the text? The author obviously included them in the
original edition, but they are gone from this one.
When I pay $15 for a book, even a paperback, I expect
to get the WHOLE book, illustrations included. The
paperback edition of "Queen Isabella" by Allison Weir,
which was about the same price, included ALL the
illustrations from the original, and in color! So
what's the deal with Continuum? I'd return the book.
except I still want to read it. Maybe I'll get it
out of the library and see what I'm missing!

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A Good book that deserves to be treasured
Becoming Human
on the nature of humanity
The new Harmony Universe is refreshing and thought provoking
A new, refreshing view of a somewhat stale genre.

Becoming Human
Valerie J. Freireich
Manufacturer: Roc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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China Mountain Zhang

ASIN: 0451453964

Customer Reviews:

A Good book that deserves to be treasured.......2005-05-10

When I first began reading this book, I finished the first part of the book,and stopped. Normally, it doesn't strike to put down a book once i start since i could read approx. 200 pages per hour. But this book is depressing in the beginnig, so I stopped reading. But after several weeks, when it was time to read the book and do my book report, I realized how much i have missed out.
Alexander dies for saving his people and protecting the electors, however, they accused him being a traitor. When Alexander's clone twin, August was presented to the wide-range of electors, he blamed Alexander, than hated him, and in the end, admired him...
I have read several thousands of books in my life, and I don't like recommending books. I suggest people to read what they like, and enjoy what they read. To be honest, this is one of the first scientific fiction novel i have read so far, and the only book i would recommend people to try. It has a combination of different genres that make you fall head over heels on this book...

Becoming Human.......2003-07-18

A character-driven variant of the classic SF theme of the nature of humanity.

This is potentially a wonderful story, with high drama, politics, and interesting interpersonal relationships. For me, the execution was at times overly opaque and oblique, so that I spent too much time trying to figure out the political system and why the characters were doing what they did. I can imagine this having been a fantastic novel if it had been written with a bit more grace and depth.

Nevertheless, it's a promising first novel with some interesting ideas and a generally good treatment of characterization.

on the nature of humanity.......2000-01-17

I bought this book on a recommendation from the Alternative Sexualities in Fantasy and SF Booklist compiled online by M.A. Mohanraj, and I'm now quite pleased that I did. Valerie Freireich is a lawyer as well as a writer, and it shows in her skillful depictions of conspiracies, secrets, political machinations, and diplomatic relations. Something of a Pinocchio / Frankenstein story set in a future where cloning and genetic manipulation are realities, Becoming Human is an exploration into the nature of humanity, loyalty, individuality, and love. It's been quite a while since I've enjoyed reading a SF novel so much as I've enjoyed this one.

The new Harmony Universe is refreshing and thought provoking.......1999-06-30

From the provocative cover art to the tragic ending of Becoming Human, I was struck by the existential questions posed within.

Freirriech deconstructs secular humanism, bio-engineering, religiosity among atheists, fear of otherness, and authoritarianism among the academic elite in her scenario of world colonization by proponents of the human actualization movements popular in the 70's in Southern California.

Becoming Human, Testament and Imposter are adult books, which each separately explore, in a literary, almost poetic framework, the meaning of the concept of human. Orson Scott Card ultimately caused Ender's torments to become the self-serving pitying cries of one who was helpless when used as a human torpedo. Freireich showed that even in slavery, the slave has free will to love, to empathize, to act . . . and thus be human.

Her definition of humanity resides not in DNA sequences or selective breeding, but rather, in emotions and feeling and acting on those emotions or feelings from choice, not duty, not reflex; the ultimate human act is to act altruistically and in truth -- not from self-righteousness or self-deception.

A Superb series. I highly recommend it. I look forward to additonal volumes.

A new, refreshing view of a somewhat stale genre........1998-09-21

When I first discovered science fiction as a child, I eagerly devoured each new novel. Every story was new, with interesting ideas, fantastic situations, and interesting concepts and moral issues to explore.

Over the years, it seemed that I lost that feeling of wonder and awe. Each book seemed to be a re-visitation of concepts and ideas already explored in an earlier novel. Slowly, I drifted from the genre.

And then I read "Becoming Human".

I was transported back to my youth, and found myself reading a book with original ideas. Instead of just re-hashing someone else's story, this novel was totally new; it had a unique story concept, and was a riviting read.

Book Description

By the time she was twenty-four, Virginia Woolf had suffered a series of devastating losses that later she would describe as "sledge-hammer blows," beginning with the death of her mother when she was thirteen years old and followed by those of her half-sister, father, and brother. Yet vulnerable as she was ("skinless" was her word) she began, through these years, to practice her art-and to discover how it could serve her. Ultimately, she came to feel that it was her "shock-receiving capacity" that had made her a writer. Astonishingly gifted from the start, Woolf learned to be attentive to the movements of her own mind. Through self-reflection she found a language for the ebb and flow of thought, fantasy, feeling, and memory, for the shifts of light and dark. And in her writing she preserved, recreated, and altered the dead, altering in the process her internal relationship with their "invisible presences." "I will go backwards & forwards" she remarked in her diary, a comment on both her imaginative and writerly practice. Following Woolf's lead, psychologist Katherine Dalsimer moves backward and forward between the work of Woolf's maturity and her early journals, letters, and unpublished juvenilia to illuminate the process by which Woolf became a writer. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory as well as on Woolf's life and work, and trusting Woolf's own self-observations, Dalsimer offers a compelling account of a young artist's voyage out-a voyage that Virginia Woolf began by looking inward and completed by looking back.

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Much more than a coming of age story
What If. . . . .?
WONDERFUL TALE - COULD BE ME
GOOD STUFF HERE - WELL WORTH THE READ
It was just okay

Becoming Bobbie
R.J. Stevens
Manufacturer: Kensington
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0758204108

Customer Reviews:

Much more than a coming of age story.......2006-12-12

First person narratives often put me off bcause of the limited point of view, but the only way this story can work is in the first person.
Bobbie has been a gifted auto mechanic since she was a very young girl. This is enough to make her an outsider even if her family's frequent moves hadn't made her a "professional new kid" in school. A lot of things make Bobbie's adolescence difficult - not the least of which is that she discovers that she is a lesbian and acts on it.
Bobbie's "revelations" help her to survive and grow up relatively emotionally healthy. Stevens gets inside the heart and emotions of this young woman and makes the reader care deeply about her.I was some put off by the fact that her teacher succumbed to temptation and went after Bobbie, but was amazed at the strength it took to back off and keep her hands and heart to herself (for both of them.
This is the first of Stevens' books I've read, but it won't be the last.

What If. . . . .?.......2006-12-11

A refreshing read. Engaging. Well-written. The character of Bobbi is quite interesting.

However:

Would you feel the same about these characters had the relationship been between an older man and a 17-year-old girl? Would you feel the same about these characters had the relationship been between an older man and a 17-year-old boy?

How do you feel about the fact that older woman in the novel is also Bobbi's teacher and that she, in fact, seduced Bobbi beginning at the bar?

Food for thought? Maybe. Or is love blind?

WONDERFUL TALE - COULD BE ME.......2006-08-06

I enjoyed every word of this one. A very thoughtful and sensitive story and very, very well written. I do hope we hear more from this author.

GOOD STUFF HERE - WELL WORTH THE READ.......2004-07-09

This author is an excellent teller of stories. I found the book to be delightful. Autobiographical novel or not, it certainly has the ring of one. Excellent story line and a smooth read. I certainly hope we receive more of this author's work. This is one I will probably read again. Again, great stuff and I highly recommend. A very feeling book and story.

It was just okay.......2004-03-26

The story was fine. It kept my interest but the author's character's we very one dimensional. There was no depth to any of them including Bobbie. Flat writing usally leads to a dull and boring story but R.J Stevens salvaged that senario by telling a half way decent story. So, I went ahead and finished the book.

Becoming a Writer on Becoming a Novelist

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Becoming a Writer on Becoming a Novelist
Dorothea Brande
Manufacturer: QUALITY PAPERBACK BOOKCLUB
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WE6756

Becoming the Butlers (Bantam New Fiction)

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Becoming the Butlers (Bantam New Fiction)
Pamela Brandt
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0553070363
Release Date: 1990-10-01

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On Becoming A Novelist
John / foreword by Raymond Carver Gardner
Manufacturer: Norton, 1991
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000X2IM14

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On Becoming a Novelist
John Gardner
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEQVGY

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