The Art Of series is a new series of brief books by contemporary writers on important craft issues. Each book investigates an element of the craft of fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry by discussing works by authors past and present. The books in the Art Of series are not strictly manuals, but serve readers and writers by illuminating aspects of the craft of writing that people think they already know but don't really know.

Fiction writer and essayist Charles Baxter's The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot discusses and illustrates the hidden subtextual overtones and undertones in fictional works haunted by the unspoken, the suppressed, and the secreted. Using an array of examples from Melville and Dostoyevsky to contemporary writers Paula Fox, Edward P. Jones, and Lorrie Moore, Baxter explains how fiction writers create those visible and invisible details, how what is displayed evokes what is not displayed.

"Though there are passages where this slim, college-lecture-style volume turns facile or tiresome, novelist Baxter's analysis of 'the implied, the half-visible, and the unspoken' in literature is saved from irrelevance by a keen sense of pacing and a healthy dose of self-awareness (after confidently zooming through seminal works by Herman Melville, John Cheever, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Baxter confesses, 'I feel that ... I am on the verge of what Walt Whitman calls "a usual mistake." I don't wish to simplify what is actually intricate'). Indeed, as the brief chapters of this little book build on each other, Baxter's observations-which initially seem more like interesting rhetorical devices than substantive arguments-gain clarity and momentum, and the accumulation of anecdotal asides about writers' workshops and former students turn them from annoying interjections into helpful indicators of Baxter's relationship with literature. Many of the issues raised in this volume are as old as the study of literature itself, but Baxter's ability to ask unusual and incisive questions of familiar topics (Why is the volatility of Dostoyevsky's characters so unpleasant? Why is it so difficult-and yet so vital-to describe facial features?) makes this little volume worthwhile for the engaged student of literature." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

In this collection of essays, Baxter (U. of Minnesota), a fiction writer and essayist, considers the technique of subtext in writing, its elements, and how they are brought to the surface. He provides examples of their use with characters, dialogue, inflection and metaphor, and in fiction and poetry, such as Bernardo Atxaga's Obabakoak, The Great Gatsby, and Dostoeyevsky's novels. There is no index. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

"The Art Of series is meant to restore criticism as an art, with writers examining features of their craft in lively and colorful prose." Charles Baxter

Charles Baxter is the author of ten books, including The Feast of Love, a finalist for the National Book Award, and Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction. He teaches at the University of Minnesota and lives in Minneapolis.