When I set out to write a book about the natural history of breasts, I knew I'd have to answer some awkward questions about my book topic. At a...
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I always thought that reading would teach me how to write through the magic of osmosis, but Francine Prose has enabled me to understand that reflecting on how writers mesmerize us, when they do, is actually a more effective way to learn how to try and weave our own spells as writers. I loved her witty and insightful appreciations of favorite writers of mine such as Roth, Chekhov and George Eliot.
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(7 of 21 readers found this comment helpful)
This lesser known novel of Wharton's, published in 1917, deserves a wider audience. It's the story of a summer love affair which can't become anything other than a sweet memory because of the lovers' differences in social class. They both know it from the start and there's no blame, just acceptance of realities that cannot be evaded. So they treat each other with heightened tenderness and the story becomes a bittersweet celebration of that moment in their lives.
I originally read Summer twenty years ago, but one image has always stayed with me, because the book is, in part, about sexual awakening, but also for it's own startling beauty: in talking about the fireworks display which the lovers view when on the brink of becoming involved Wharton writes "Sky flowers shed their flaming petals."
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(4 of 9 readers found this comment helpful)
Mark Salzman's resolutely unsentimental account of his experience teaching writing to juveniles being tried as adults for serious crimes is an an eloquent testimony to the redemptive power of writing and also raises important questions about whether justice depends on ethnicity and financial resources. The boys in True Notebooks shatter stereotypes with the honesty, pathos, and humor in their writing, even as the hopelessness of their situations makes us wish for very different social realities.
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(16 of 35 readers found this comment helpful)
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Carol Imani has commented on (3) products.
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose
Carol Imani, January 18, 2007
I always thought that reading would teach me how to write through the magic of osmosis, but Francine Prose has enabled me to understand that reflecting on how writers mesmerize us, when they do, is actually a more effective way to learn how to try and weave our own spells as writers. I loved her witty and insightful appreciations of favorite writers of mine such as Roth, Chekhov and George Eliot.(7 of 21 readers found this comment helpful)
Summer by Edith Wharton
Carol Imani, January 16, 2007
This lesser known novel of Wharton's, published in 1917, deserves a wider audience. It's the story of a summer love affair which can't become anything other than a sweet memory because of the lovers' differences in social class. They both know it from the start and there's no blame, just acceptance of realities that cannot be evaded. So they treat each other with heightened tenderness and the story becomes a bittersweet celebration of that moment in their lives.I originally read Summer twenty years ago, but one image has always stayed with me, because the book is, in part, about sexual awakening, but also for it's own startling beauty: in talking about the fireworks display which the lovers view when on the brink of becoming involved Wharton writes "Sky flowers shed their flaming petals."
(4 of 9 readers found this comment helpful)
True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall by Mark Salzman
Carol Imani, December 31, 2006
Mark Salzman's resolutely unsentimental account of his experience teaching writing to juveniles being tried as adults for serious crimes is an an eloquent testimony to the redemptive power of writing and also raises important questions about whether justice depends on ethnicity and financial resources. The boys in True Notebooks shatter stereotypes with the honesty, pathos, and humor in their writing, even as the hopelessness of their situations makes us wish for very different social realities.(16 of 35 readers found this comment helpful)