Synopses & Reviews
In
Magic Hours, award-winning essayist Tom Bissell explores the highs and lows of the creative process. He takes us from the set of
The Big Bang Theory to the first novel of Ernest Hemingway to the final work of David Foster Wallace; from the films of Werner Herzog to the film of Tommy Wiseau to the editorial meeting in which Paula Fox's work was relaunched into the world. Originally published in magazines such as
The Believer,
The New Yorker, and
Harper's, these essays represent ten years of Bissell's best writing on every aspect of creation be it Iraq War documentaries or video-game character voices and will provoke as much thought as they do laughter.
What are sitcoms for exactly? Can art be both bad and genius? Why do some books survive and others vanish? Bissell's exploration of these questions make for gripping, unforgettable reading.
Review
"Tom Bissell is at his best in this terrific collection." Geoff Dyer
Review
"Every one of Bissell's pieces is like some great, transfixing documentary you stumble on while channel-surfing late at night — something you feel, in that moment, a kind of gratitude toward for redeeming your sleeplessness. Considered alongside his fiction, this new collection makes clear that Tom Bissell is one of our most interesting and ambitious writers." John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead
Review
"Sharply observed, lushly descriptive and often extremely funny." Salon
Review
"Bissell writes astutely, smartly, and with acerbic candor." The Boston Globe
Review
"A highly gratifying literary experience."
Los Angeles Review of Books
Review
"Bissell's essays are brutally honest, thoughtful and entertaining to the nth degree."
Portland Book Review
Review
"Entertaining, informative and exquisitely readable."
Shelf Awareness
Review
"Full of beauty."
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Review
"[Tom Bissell] writes these essays with a storyteller's eye for detail."
New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
"A whip-smart, occasionally pugnacious collection of essays on culture from a wide-ranging critic....Stellar cultural writing — Bissell has the knowledge and wit to earn his provocations." Kirkus (Starred Review)
About the Author
Tom Bissell is the author of Extra Lives, Chasing the Sea, God Lives in St. Petersburg, and The Father of All Things. A recipient of the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Bay de Noc Community College Alumnus of the Year Award. He teaches fiction writing at Portland State University and lives in Portland, Oregon.