The Novel

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Linda Shelnutt, April 15, 2006 (view all comments by Linda Shelnutt)
A Living Literary Gem Set In Gestalt of Historic Novels


It is very likely that, within the prolific progress of his production as an historical novelist, Mr. Michener received hoards of letters from writers who had spent a few years bruising foreheads on publishers? warded doors, then wised-up and tip-toed around to the alley looking for an in through an established author.

THE NOVEL is a response to this and much more. A telling book about the gestalt of publishing, focusing on the midwife process of book-length-fiction, THE NOVEL releases the secrets of its journey from conception to The New York Times Best Seller List.

Intriguingly, THE NOVEL is significantly shorter than Michener?s other novels, and it?s written in a somewhat experimental storytelling technique. In Michener?s other novels he uses honorable, tried-and-true techniques.

In this toe-in-the-water literary experiment, Michener separates his narrative into four illuminating Parts, each written from the unique, First-Person-Narrative points-of-view of The Writer, then of The Editor, then of The Critic, and then of The Reader.

Switching Narrative style has been a firm ?No No.? Once The Novel had established Lukas Yoder in First Person, the whole book would have been written from that point-of-view, i.e., ?I am Lukas Yoder and I got up this morning at 5 am feeling ... Here?s how I see my editor, critic, and reader ...?

Too many experimental works of fiction, as Michener exposes in THE NOVEL, gleefully toss out the rules and write a piece-of-work so incomprehensible, so unidentifiable, so ?out there? as to be impossible to READ, let alone enjoy or, heaven forbid, escape into and live vicariously with well drawn characters who follow the rules of story-living.

Michener breaks the rules just enough in THE NOVEL to have produced a refreshingly delightful, yet poignant and powerful literary work. He has delivered a literary presentation equal to the term, which, unfortunately, often brands any work of fiction with the stigma of being boring or depressing. THE NOVEL is far from dull or depleting. It provides a rich reading experience, alive with Pennsylvania Dutch ambiance bridged into the glitzy world of NYC publishing.

Each of the Four parts of THE NOVEL work so well that the dramatic-display-of-differences among each of the four is clarified through a glass brightly; the nuances of each part are painted in oil-color, brilliant-contrast as they neatly emerge among antithetical ambiances of Writer, Editor, Critic, and Reader. When they?re read sequentially within the bindings of this novel, these four unique gestalts interweave warmly, coalescing into a portrait of the dynamic dichotomy of the world of, in, and around the living force of the Novel.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780449221433

Author:

Michener, James A.

Publisher:

Fawcett Books

Author:

Michener, James A.

Location:

New York :

Subject:

General

Subject:

Literary

Subject:

Fiction

Subject:

Authors

Subject:

New york (n.y.)

Subject:

Pennsylvania

Subject:

Publishers and publishing

Subject:

Novelists

Subject:

Pennsylvania dutch

Subject:

Mystery fiction

Subject:

Literature-A to Z

Copyright:

c199

Edition Description:

Mass market paperback

Series Volume:

no. 94-2

Publication Date:

19920731

Binding:

MASS MARKET

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Pages:

448

Dimensions:

6.87x4.18x1.02 in. .49 lbs.