Janet Burroway

Suffice it to say, I devoured Raw Silk in four days. I probably would have finished it sooner if I didn't have to take time out for essential things like eating, sleeping, and a little thing called going to work. I simply couldn't put it down. Virginia Marbalestier is an American mother to a five year old, married to a Brit, and living in a big house outside of London. She has risen above her childhood of Californian poverty to become a successful textiles designer for a company where her show more domineering husband is second in command. She appears to have it all, but if anyone were to peep in their windows one would see an abusive relationship spiraling out of control. "Ginny" and husband, Oliver, fight constantly and the confusing thing is, not only does Ginny predict the abuse, she does nothing to avoid it. She welcomes it by deliberately differing and defying her husband on a regular basis. They fight over the welfare of their daughter and when Ginny gives in that is the first betrayal. The second is Frances. Oliver is all about appearances and when Ginny befriends Frances, a mentally unstable, nearly catatonic coworker, he seethes with anger. The angrier Oliver gets, the more "accidents" Ginny has. This downward spiral forces Ginny to examine her own life, her own betrayals, her own sacrifices. show less

Rarely have I encountered a writing text so dense in wisdom, so practical, and so philosophically astute. I love how Burroway segues from specific suggestions to illustrative examples from literature to a unified, comprehensive and comprehendible theory of how fiction works.

"Although these are tricks that can be taught and learned, they partake of the essential nature of creativity, in which several elements are joined to produce not merely a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, show more but a whole that is something altogether other. At the conception of an embryo or a short story, there occurs a conjunction of two unlike things, whether cells or ideas, that have never been joined before. Around this conjunction other cells, other ideas accumulate in a deliberate pattern. That pattern is the unique personality of the creature, and if the pattern does not cohere, it miscarries or is stillborn." 312

Because I almost exclusively teach creative nonfiction, and because I write both fiction and creative nonfiction, I found myself looking through Burroway's observations about fiction to the fundamentals of good story-telling, and through craft to observations about our fundamental nature as created beings and as creators. Just an excellent text! show less

4/5
A book full of inspiration, tips, and prompts.

I loved so much about this book. I love that there's prompts and suggested readings! There's also quotes sprinkled throughout the text. The tone is friendly and so the writing never came off as dense, academic, or boring to me. The formatting was beautiful and made it enjoyable and easier to absorb everything. It's packed with information, but there's clever use of white space that breaks up the walls of text and sections them in ways that show more gave my eyes the perfect break. Such a tiny thing, but I noticed it really mattered to my brain.

Burroway talks about a lot of important topics like setting, plot, showing and telling, POV, and two chapters on characterization. It's perfect for new writers as I find many struggle with telling and everyone struggles with POV. It's also a great refresher for more seasoned writers. It's a perfect reference to read cover to cover or only sections you need. I'll definitely be keeping it close at hand.

This is a wonderful resource! I'm so glad my library purchased this book this year. I will run to the store and purchase it because it worked really well for me. Check your local libraries! Request they purchase this and put it on hold! show less

Received in ebook format from the publishers at Hopcyn Press in exchange for a review. Copies are available via Amazon here.

Dana, on the verge of leaving her senator husband of many years, instead stays and nurses him through his final illness. She's burying him in early September 2001, in up-state Pennsylvania, with the plumes of smoke billowing in the distance. Little does she realise that the day she buries her husband is that what grief and sorrow she may feel would be absorbed and show more unknowingly belittled by the collective national grief coming out of the World Trade Centre bombings.

She comes to terms that her husband has left little money (after debts, death duty etc)
and in her grief fixates on renovating some furniture that she finds in the garage before selling it all.

Feeling little - desiring something - she starts heading west, looking to find the younger self she seems to have lost during her marriage. In looking for the one home she remembers with any fondness - she finds it has been replaced by a mall. She looks up Cassius, one of the few people she remembers from school, and the two soon form a sexual relationship. Almost immediately she becomes aware of an undercurrent she's never had to be attuned to before - being white, she has never had to look through a black man's eyes before, to be wary of where she goes and who with, and certainly not as part of a mixed race couple.

Soon she is threatened by Cassius' family, and escapes to a previously agreed safety spot in Florida. It is here that the majority of the action in the book takes place, where the community is split - black vs white, young vs old, and somehow, without realising it, Dana gets stuck in the middle.

When the book starts out Dana is very numb, and the writing style reflects this - I was worried that it would continue this way through the rest of the book, but it becomes easier as Dana spends more time with Solly, Tanya, Bernedette etc and begins to find herself. The language does remain rather sparse - there's few unnecessary words e.g. we really dont know that much about Phoebe outside of the occasional phone call. Dana's early life - her mother running out on her and her father, Dana planning to leave her husband - makes her a wanderer, desperate to move on, and the finale of the book finds Dana making a decision to commit to what she has and actually stay still for a while - it's not necessarily what she had planned for herself but it's something worth committing to, and not just for herself.

Neither race comes of better or worse than the other - all Whites aren't racist bigots and all Blacks aren't the Nobel Savage. In the end people are people and Dana needs to both find herself and find her position in relation to others whilst coming to terms with all the losses in her life....

So a sparsely worded book that tackles grief, racism, small town living, human against nature, human against human, secrets and lies. The sparseness of the words worked, but am yet to be convinced it's my favourite writing style. show less