James Wood (1)

In this remarkable blend of memoir and criticism, James Wood, noted contributor to the New Yorker, has written a master class on the connections between fiction and life. He argues that, of all the arts, fiction has a unique ability to describe the shape of our lives and to rescue the texture of those lives from death and historical oblivion. The act of reading is understood here as the most sacred and personal of activities, and there are brilliant discussions of individual works--among others, Chekhov's story "The Kiss," W.G. Sebald's The Emigrants, and Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower.

Wood reveals his own intimate relationship with the written word: we see the development of a provincial boy growing up in a charged Christian environment, the secret joy of his childhood reading, the links he makes between reading and blasphemy, or between literature and music. The final section discusses fiction in the context of exile and homelessness. The Nearest Thing to Life is not simply a brief, tightly argued book by a man commonly regarded as our finest living critic -- it is also an exhilarating personal account that reflects on, and embodies, the fruitful conspiracy between reader and writer (and critic), and asks us to reconsider everything that is at stake when we read and write fiction.

Location: Street: Porter Square Shopping Center Additional: 25 White Street City: Cambridge, Province: Massachusetts Postal Code: 02140 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Left Bank Books

Join us for a reading group discussion of How Fiction Works by James Woods!

Wood takes aim at E.M. Forster's longtime standard-bearer Aspects of the Novel, in this eminently readable and thought-provoking treatise on the ways, whys, and hows of writing and reading fiction.

Parking: Lots one block north and one block east; street parking (meters free after 7pm).

For directions and public transportation information, click here.

Location: Street: Left Bank Books Additional: 399 N. Euclid Ave. City: Saint Louis, Province: Missouri Postal Code: 63108 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

James Wood, The Fun Stuff: And Other Essays

“Wood is one of the best readers writing today. Devouring these pieces back to back feels like having a long conversation about books with your most erudite, articulate, and excitable friend. To read his essays on the works of Norman Rush, Aleksandar Hemon, Leo Tolstoy, or Lydia Davis is to relive the specific brand of joy created by a particular work of genius. Wood’s reviews are never just evaluations; more often they are passionate, sensitive discourses on the variations of authorial voice, the nature of memory, or the burden of biography. … Wood’s veneration of virtuosity reminds why we’re reading at all—because we still believe that it’s possible to find transcendence in great art. Isn’t it fun to think so?”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Wood is now unquestionably one of the most influential voices in contemporary literary criticism.”
The Millions

James Wood is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a visiting lecturer at Harvard University. He is the author of How Fiction Works, as well as two essay collections, The Broken Estate and The Irresponsible Self, and a novel, The Book Against God. (ablachly)… (more)

Harvard Book Store welcomes essayist JAMES WOOD for a discussion of his new collection, The Fun Stuff: And Other Essays.
Following The Broken Estate, The Irresponsible Self, and How Fiction Works—books that established James Wood as the leading critic of his generation—The Fun Stuff confirms Wood’s preeminence, not only as a discerning judge but also as an appreciator of the contemporary novel. In twenty-three passionate, sparkling dispatches—that range over such crucial writers as Thomas Hardy, Leon Tolstoy, Edmund Wilson, and Mikhail Lermontov—Wood offers a panoramic look at the modern novel. He effortlessly connects his encyclopedic, passionate understanding of the literary canon with an equally in-depth analysis of the most important authors writing today, including Cormac McCarthy, Lydia Davis, Aleksandar Hemon, and Michel Houellebecq.
Included in The Fun Stuff are the title essay on Keith Moon and the lost joys of drumming—which was a finalist for last year’s National Magazine Awards—as well as Wood’s essay on George Orwell, which Christopher Hitchens selected for the Best American Essays 2010. The Fun Stuff is indispensable reading for anyone who cares about contemporary literature. (ablachly)… (more)

James Wood , How Fiction Works.

"Wood is among the few contemporary writers of great consequence...Reading Wood, no matter the book under review, provides enormous pleasure."Los Angeles Times "A perceptive and graceful essay which almost anybody who's interested in books could read . . . Well worth reading."The Sunday Times James Wood is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a visiting lecturer at Harvard. He is the author of two essay collections, The Broken Estate and The Irresponsible Self, and a novel, The Book Against God. (booksense)… (more)

James Wood reads from How Fiction Works.

In the tradition of E. M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel and Milan Kundera’s The Art of the Novel, Woods’ How Fiction Works (Cape) is a searching study of the main elements of fiction, such as narrative, detail, characterisation, dialogue, realism, and style. How can we ‘know’ a fictional character? What constitutes a ‘telling’ detail? When is a metaphor successful? Why do most endings of novels disappoint?

Ranging widely from Homer to John Le Carré, the book is both a study of the techniques of fiction-making and an alternative history of the novel. James Wood is a staff writer at The New Yorker and Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at Harvard. (FlossieT)… (more)