Review by Booklist Review
Forty-six renowned authors share the prose, poetry, and lyrics that originally inspired them to write, along with lines that continue to influence their craft. Junot Díaz finds a friend of his mind in Toni Morrison. Lev Grossman learned how to make magic out of very ordinary physical impressions from C. S. Lewis. Elizabeth Gilbert values Jack Gilbert's stubborn gladness (no relation). Although some sources overlap more than one contributor references the Bible, Dickinson, Whitman, Kafka, and Munro these authors, with various backgrounds, tastes, and writing processes, demonstrate how an array of approaches can lead to stunning works. They emphasize the importance of creating a captivating voice and their struggles to mold opening sentences, but most important, they encourage aspiring artists to live fully, which will inform their writing. As they reveal what inspires them, they, in turn, inspire the reader, all while celebrating the beauty and purpose of art. With the personal appeal of Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing (1990) and Stephen King's On Writing (1999), this is a must for every writing-guide collection.--Hyzy, Biz Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Asking writers to write about writing is a fraught proposition (is there anything new left to say?), but editor Fassler (Night Music) includes many gems among this anthology's 46 entries. Using the approach that he developed for the Atlantic's online series "By Heart," where some of these pieces were first published, Fassler asks each writer to find a life-changing passage of literature and make a case for why it matters. The collection's best essays soar; they include Mary Gaitskill on a scene from Anna Karenina, Tom Perrotta on Our Town's sense of ordinariness, and Ayana Mathis on James Baldwin and race. Stephen King, as always, is masterful on writing's nuts and bolts, in this case writing about a novel's opening sentence. The strongest essays focus on close readings of texts. Weaker essays become about the author and meander into clichés, such as that writing takes courage or that writers must trust themselves. The book would have benefited from brief author bios: not every writer is a household name. Nevertheless, the essays' variety and the heart and intelligence evident in many of them add up to a valuable book, one that leads readers back to treasured classics and forward to the works of these contemporary authors. Agent: Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In this collection of 46 essays from the Atlantic's "By Heart" series, writer Fassler (Night Music) brings together thoughts on reading, writing, and the experience of the written word by some of today's most recognizable authors. It would be easy to say that Fassler presents a string of musings on words that stir the soul, but these essays consider more than the power of literature to inspire; they speak to the power of words on family, lived experience, personal mantras, ideals, perception, etc. While the title suggests that the collection is concerned with creativity and the artistic process, it would be a mistake to assume that this is a treatise on the daily habits of writers, or even on the art of composition. Those curious to learn what makes their favorites author tick will find plenty here to engage their interest, but this is not a writer's guide. VERDICT Bibliophiles and writers alike will embrace the narratives and literary references, which offer much in the way of inspiration. It will be particularly useful for book clubs or discussion groups.- Gricel Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In these short essays, writers discuss the works that made them want to write.New Food Economy senior editor Fassler is also the editor of the Atlantic's author interview series, "By Heart," where a number of these essays originally appeared. "Part memoir, part literary criticism, part craft class, part open studio," the pieces describe the impact or "moment of transformative reading" for each of the contributors. Stephen King's favorite is the opening line of Douglas Fairbairn's Shoot: "This is what happened." "For me," he writes, "this has always been the quintessential opening line. It's flat and clean as an affidavit." He then goes on to describe his best opening line, from Needful Things. Khaled Hosseini picks a King story, "The Body." Its "wonderful" opening "moved me very deeply, and it still does." In just one page, Walter Mosley describes how two sentences toward the end of Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye shook his teenage self "from my waking slumber." For the first time he realized how language can "reach beyond the real into the metaphysical and into metaphor." Billy Collins describes the "immediate appeal" of Yeats' "The Lake Isle of Innisfree." In college, he memorized the "gorgeous" poem and since then has always tried to write his poems with an ear to making them "memorizable." Poems and fiction dominate the collection, but Tom Perrotta picks a play, Thornton Wilder's Our Town, which works a "kind of magic." And Mark Haddon writes about music, Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew," which "changed the way I saw the world." Two writers pick the same poet as their inspiration: Emily Dickinson. Emma Donoghue loves her "enigmatic" "Wild NightsWild Nights!" James Baldwin, Franz Kafka, and Walt Whitman also get picked twice. Others lighting the literary dark in this luminous and appealing collection include Jane Smiley (Charles Dickens), Junot Daz (Toni Morrison), Yiyun Li (Elizabeth Bowen), Neil Gaiman (R.A. Lafferty), and Michael Chabon (Jorge Luis Borges). Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
