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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As if I had been in the audience for the lectures upon which this book was based, I actually applauded when I finished reading "The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist." In a conversational and intimate tone, Pamuk describes his experience as a reader of novels and a writer of novels. His new book illuminates and inspires. If you haven't yet read Pamuk's essays ("Other Colors," which for me made Pamuk a soulmate) or his novels, this book will tempt you. "The great literary novels," Pamuk writes in this volume (based on the 2009 Norton lectures at Harvard), "are indispensable to us because they create the hope and vivid illusion that the world has a center and a meaning, and because they give us joy by sustaining this impression as we turn their pages.... We want to reread such novels once we finish them -- not because we have located the center, but because we want to experience once again this feeling of optimism." LIke me, you'll want to reread "The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist," too. Note to Powell's: This book should be a featured title.
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(6 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
This is a modern classic that's guaranteed to captivate writers and readers of literary fiction. It's an "Elements of Style" for literature. You'll be jotting notes on the back of Stumptown receipts so you won't forget which novels and short stories to pick up on your next trip to Powell's. It's worth reading alone for Wood's closing tribute to Willa Cather.
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(12 of 21 readers found this comment helpful)
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Gabriel Boehmer has commented on (2) products.
The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist (Charles Eliot Norton Lectures) by Orhan Pamuk
Gabriel Boehmer, November 6, 2010
As if I had been in the audience for the lectures upon which this book was based, I actually applauded when I finished reading "The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist." In a conversational and intimate tone, Pamuk describes his experience as a reader of novels and a writer of novels. His new book illuminates and inspires. If you haven't yet read Pamuk's essays ("Other Colors," which for me made Pamuk a soulmate) or his novels, this book will tempt you. "The great literary novels," Pamuk writes in this volume (based on the 2009 Norton lectures at Harvard), "are indispensable to us because they create the hope and vivid illusion that the world has a center and a meaning, and because they give us joy by sustaining this impression as we turn their pages.... We want to reread such novels once we finish them -- not because we have located the center, but because we want to experience once again this feeling of optimism." LIke me, you'll want to reread "The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist," too. Note to Powell's: This book should be a featured title.(6 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
How Fiction Works by James Wood
Gabriel Boehmer, August 27, 2008
This is a modern classic that's guaranteed to captivate writers and readers of literary fiction. It's an "Elements of Style" for literature. You'll be jotting notes on the back of Stumptown receipts so you won't forget which novels and short stories to pick up on your next trip to Powell's. It's worth reading alone for Wood's closing tribute to Willa Cather.(12 of 21 readers found this comment helpful)