Why Can't All Writers Be This Good?
A review by Rhian Ellis
There are a handful of writers I read not because of the stories they tell, or for their memorable characters, or for their ability to evoke a time or place, but because I really enjoy being inside their heads. Alice Munro is one of these writers--her characters are vividly real but not especially distinctive, and if you read a lot of her work, they all blur together. Things happen in her stories, but the plots feel secondary to how the narrator interprets them. And to be honest, if I had to choose a time and place to read about, rural 20th century Canada would not spring to mind. But I find Munro's work--almost every word of it--utterly compelling. It's because her stories are about what it's like to be in a particular mind, to have a particular consciousness. Her noticing, her interpreting, is always new and shocking and revelatory, and right and true. Philip Roth is another of these writers. I have no special interest in the urban, post-war, sex-obsessed white male (most of...
|
 |
Previously Reviewed by Identity Theory
Sort: by date | by title | by author
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem
 There was recently an interesting discussion at The Quarterly Conversation about what constitutes good literary criticism. J.C. Hallmann suggests that his fellow critics ought to approach literature not in the way critics do, but in the way writers do, in that writers are "perfectly comfortable...
Stories in the Worst Way by Gary Lutz
 What could be worse than having to be seen resorting to your own life? In my case, there was a fixed sum of experiences... to or from which I could not yet add or subtract, but which I was skilled at coming to grief over, crucially, in broad daylight.
So opens Gary Lutz's first story collection -- ...
Please Step Back by Ben Greenman
 There's a thumping, pulsating bass line suffusing the language of Ben Greenman's newest novel, Please Step Back, a snaky rhythm that traces Rock Foxx's rise to stardom and a slow dirge following his inevitable fall from grace. Glittery and disco-flashy, but never indulgent, Greenman's novel is so...
A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore
 No one who is a fan of Lorrie Moore, or of coming-of-age novels rich in wit and specificity, should resist reading A Gate At The Stairs. It contains patented Moore delights: mordant humor in shades of gray to charcoal, a quirky, self-deprecating heroine who notices both too much and not enough...
Founded in 2000, Identity Theory is a regularly updated online
publication that publishes reviews of literary fiction, poetry, and
contemporary non-fiction from presses both small and large.
Original fiction, creative nonfiction essays, poetry, and interviews with high-profile
contemporary authors also appear on the site nearly every week.
Visit Identity Theory here: identitytheory.com
|
Don't Miss
