Customer Comments

This is a wonderful book about the exploration of mind & spirit, of where we came from, where we are going and why we are headed where we are. A teacher and a student jointly explore the questions of life, society and culture. Ishmael the teacher is a gorilla and he teaches the human student through telepathy. This is not as goofy as it seems, for he is an outsider looking at human society, and has a unique perspective. Sometimes you need the right book at the right time to give you that badly-needed jolt that makes you look at the world and your own life with new eyes. Ishmael is such a book. If this is not the right time for you, no matter -- when the right time comes, you will remember this book and go back to it.

Captivating short stories whose setting is Europe (Ireland, Spain, Britain) in the contemporary day or times past (19th century), but whose characters are not necessarily European (one story is about Pakistani workers in Barcelona). This makes for a refreshing change from the run-of-the-mill short stories, and Toibin narrates his tales with aplomb.

This is a wonderful book of craft by a well-respected teacher who has been teaching creative writing for close to three decades in some of the best institutions and writer's conferences in the country. He draws on his own life experiences and weaves into them the essence of some aspect of craft writing, like plot or characterization or dialogue. This is not an instruction manual -- do this, then do that. Rather, it is a series of essays that highlight some aspect of the craft of fiction, gives examples of novels and short stories where the author has done just that, and leaves you to figure out how to bring this skill into your own writing in your own way.