A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them (P.S.)

Francine Prose knows prose. In "Reading Like a Writer," she presents the timeless truth that great writers are great readers of great writers. More than that, Prose parses how to read well, which in our hurried, image-driven age, has become something of a lost art, even for literature lovers.

She not only encourages and explains the reading of the classics, Prose also offers a diet rich in vignettes from an egalitarian menu of authors. She is like a chef who tells you to eat great food, teaches you how to cook five-star meals, and then takes you to a five-star restaurant to become a connoisseur.

As the subtitle suggests, two primary audiences will enjoy "Reading Like a Writer." Anyone who loves books, will glean insights into great books and how to enjoy them. Anyone who wants to write books, will learn how to write better--more creatively, powerfully, and yet still personally.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."

Prose's book is a well-written collection of essays that ultimately examine the act of close reading in the context of what we look at as writers. She presents her book in chapters that focus on each of the major craft elements that we use when writing and then walks us through close reading exercises using a variety of mentor texts and points to what works for each example. Prose balances her approach to this appreciation through examining the selections as a writer and a reader and articulately explains each element in a manner in which we can digest it in both the technical and aesthetic approaches to evaluation. It was an excellent book, and the added bibliography is an excellent addition to the work she presents. I will be using this book both as a teacher and a writer, and I would recommend this to any teacher of writing and literature as often as I will recommend it to writing peers. I enjoyed this book a lot.

there are people who read soup can labels when they're bored; labels would be more interesting than this book. dull and stodgy. the examples of great lines from great books (which i was expecting) were few and far between. what a waste of time and money.

Rush, rush, rush. When it comes to reading and the enjoyment of literature, the maxim we're taught is to read more and to read faster. Rejecting that rushed approach, Francine Prose in Reading Like a Writer argues that it's better to slow down and pay attention. To linger and savor, not just mindlessly consume.

I read a lot and I'll be the first to admit that sometimes the only way to read the massive amount of new literary work being published every month, the classics on my bucket list, and the literary darlings from previous years is to read fast. But I try to make amends. If I've read too quickly, I'll often re-read. Favorites get read a few times. There are even some books I'll re-read every year religiously (why buy books if not to re-read them and enjoy them again and again?). Usually I'll find that I gain some new insight with each re-reading. Or that life experience and age filters it differently; something that moved me in a certain way at twenty-two moves me in another way in my mid-thirties. But I try not to skim because even judicious skimming ultimately makes the reading experience a hollow one. Like stuffing your face at the buffet bar and not really tasting anything.

Prose warns against skimming and rightfully so. "Skimming will not allow you to extract one fraction of what a writer's words can teach us about how to use the language." Very true. (Um, so why did our professors in college assign massive, difficult tomes to be read in a week's time? Skimming was, ironically, a survival skill we learned as English undergrads.) As fiction readers, our interface with the books we read is mainly through the plot (what happens) and through the characters (who's involved), but we often miss the more subtle cues of storytelling by glossing over the words, sentences, and paragraphs. Bottom-line, you miss a lot by reading quickly or not reading mindfully. Because even if you're just in it for the story, Prose's point is that the story--all the psychological truths and crucial revelations--also exists in the microcosms: the words used, the sentence structure, or the gestures of the characters as they speak. The story is in the details.

We forget that writers often labor painstakingly over a sentence or paragraph for days. Books are the result of multiple drafts. Good writing is never accidental; it's earnestly deliberate. There are effects and subtexts the writer wants to convey--even if we're not consciously aware of them--through the way something is written. In other words, it's not just what is said or written but *how*. Prose advocates for this kind of scrutiny and close reading. Books deserve more than our fleeting attention. She wants us to look at writing in the way we might walk up to a painting to peer at each brushstroke.

The idea of close reading might turn a lot of people off but to Prose's credit she makes the process a delightful one. (I wish I had read this as an undergrad!) Taking passages from various works, Prose breaks down what each writer does and achieves, closely examining the language used and how it expresses mood, character, and themes. You'll never look at these works the same way again.

Overall, Reading Like a Writer is must-read for any serious reader (and writer).

I bought this book in paperback, but still haven’t read it (which is, as you know, the story of this audiobook challenge). Finding it on my library app, I was thrilled. The book was a really interesting examination into what we can, as writers and readers, learn from some of the great works of literature. Although she made really good points, I was turned off by the beginning of the book where she poo-poo’d feminism and acted as if the fact that white men have been in power throughout history hasn’t influenced the way literature, what we read and what we learn has developed. Despite this heinous oversight, I enjoyed this work and would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking to write great novels.

I purchased this book to improve my understanding of fiction's moving parts, to augment my sensitivity and sensibilities as a reader rather than feel like it's Gumball Rally all the way through to tick a box. 5 Stars. I also richly enjoyed Ms. Prose's writing and, for this reason, greatly valued her very useful guide to illuminating certain threads in fiction's vast tapestry of literary textures, hues, and mosaics. As Ms. Prose makes abundantly clear, there is no such thing as a definitive instruction manual for writing fiction. This seems to have disappointed a few reviewers here, and I'm not sure why. You're on your own to develop an artistic sensibility for telling written stories, for giving the reader your own interpretation of emotion, perception, judgment, tension, etc. as expressed through the prism of the English language, which is then reinterpreted through each reader's unique mechanisms for processing the text. As just one example, how do you explain to someone that what is true may not feel true to the reader, whereas fiction may seem very real? Which is why this book's premise and its contents are very good and indeed useful: good writing about good writing to percolate and expand one's own capacity for written expression or, in my case, merely an appreciation of such expression. She highlights some authors I've never heard of, and provides intelligent ideas to sensitize and spur the reader for more and greater discoveries. She doesn't tell you what you should do or think, thankfully.

Francine Prose, in "Reading Like a Writer," argues that creative writing cannot be taught in a classroom. A workshop may provide valuable encouragement and support for a fledgling writer, and a good instructor may show a novice how to edit his work more effectively. However, a writer learns his craft by reading and rereading the books, novels, plays, and short stories of great writers, and he improves his skills through practice. Prose recommends studying "meter with Ovid, plot construction with Homer, comedy with Aristophanes." She backs up her thesis by giving a host of examples from writers she admires, such as Austen, Hemingway, Joyce, Chekhov, and others who are a bit more obscure.

Prose discusses the basics, including the use of the exact word, sentence building, paragraphing, point of view, character, and dialogue. Close reading, she asserts, enables us to understand not only what the writer is stating, but also what he is implying. The subtext is often as important, if not more important, than the text itself. Throughout "Reading Like a Writer" are excerpts, some brief, some lengthy, from a variety of sources, followed by Prose's witty, insightful, and informative commentary. Why does the writer choose one particular word or phrase rather than another? How do the seemingly minor details and gestures in a scene sometimes convey more information than the characters' statements?

"Reading Like a Writer" is not a handbook or a manual. It is a love letter to the mysterious alchemy, the magic that occurs when a reader encounters a book, poem, or story that not only entertains him, but also moves and transforms him. Francine Prose's favorite writers may not be our favorites, but all readers who love literature will appreciate her enthusiasm and respect for the written word. Her suggestions about how to read more effectively are useful not just for budding writers but for anyone who would like to come away from a book with a deeper appreciation of the author's craft. As Prose says, "Reading this way requires a certain amount of stamina, concentration, and patience."" The reward for all of this effort lies in "the excitement of approaching, as nearly as you can hope to come, the hand and mind of the artist."

Sometimes you just need to get back to basics. That is the suggestion of author Francine Prose as she reflects on creative writing workshops and concludes that they are no substitute for careful, considerate reading of classic novels. With gusto, she jumps into a discussion of technique, and chapter by chapter she works her way through the many tools at an author’s disposal. Quoting liberally from authors as varied as Philip Roth, Jane Austen and Anton Chekov, Prose analyzes each selection and dissects what makes its sentences so effective and the narrative so compelling.

If you want to boil down the book to its essential message, it’s pretty straightforward and basic: read great writers, select your words with care, and craft your sentences instead of merely tossing words upon a page. And let’s be honest – most of us know this instinctively. The trick is learning HOW to shape those sentences and which details are necessary and which should be discarded. With her clear examples, Prose gave me new ways to consider writing and reading. For every principle she introduced, she would provide some good examples of that kind of writing. I do wish she’d included some unsuccessful writing samples to further illustrate her points.

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve had an English professor to critique my writing, and I’m sure it’s gotten sloppier. This book served as a refresher course, and in that capacity it works very well. I recommend it as a source of inspiration, a reminder to pay attention not just to what a writer says, but how he or she expresses it.

Reading and reviewing recently HOW FICTION WORKS by James Wood, I realized that my wife had this quite similar book by Francine Prose on her shelves, so I started to read it for comparison -- and how wonderful it is! Forget that Prose (great name!) is a writer. Think of her as a reader with much the same tastes as you have, the kind of person whose reviews on the store so impress you that you leave a comment, and comments grow to correspondence, to the point where you can't finish something without wondering what Francine thinks of it, and you find yourselves swapping book suggestions and getting into areas you'd never have dreamed about before. That kind of friend.

But Prose is indeed a writer and a teacher of writing, and her book is organized meticulously in units of increasing size: Words, Sentences, Paragraphs, Narration, Character, Dialogue, Details, Gesture. These are the titles of chapters two through nine of her book, though she ranges widely within each. Whereas James Wood tends to use his reading to lead into some aesthetic principle, Prose uses ideas to lead us into reading. And what reading! Here, for example, are the authors she quotes in one chapter (#4) of her book: Isaac Babel, Rex Stout, Paula Fox, Gabriel García Márquez, Jane Austen, Herman Melville, Jonathan Franzen, Gary Shteyngart, Dennis Johnson, and James Baldwin. Had I money to burn, I would keep an the store order window open while I was reading; I'm sure I would have added at least two dozen books to my cart by the end -- never mind the volumes already on my TBR pile that she has persuaded me to move to the top, such as the LIVING, LOVING, PARTY GOING trilogy by Henry Green, whom she extols as a master of dialogue.

I mention Green because her section on him also shows a slight downside to Prose's enthusiasms. She can get so excited about a writer that she just can't stop digging out more and more examples to share with you. In this chapter (the one on dialogue) she manages to quote nine whole pages of Scott Spencer's A SHIP MADE OF PAPER, lost in sheer admiration. But who am I to complain? It is just the consequence of being so personal, so refreshingly non-academic. Francine (you want to call her that) opens and closes each chapter with some anecdote from her experience that may have nothing to do with books at all. My favorite is a man who called in to CAR TALK on NPR to ask if he should buy a red Jeep or a scarlet Miata. Quick as a flash, the question came back: "So tell me, when did you get your divorce?" What can be learnt from one telling detail! And the joy of having such a lively companion to talk about it!

I was drawn to this book by some enthusiastic reviews by fellow readers. I was curious to find out what Ms Prose has to say on whether creative writing can be taught, keen to find out which writers she admires, which books she recommends, and why.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book: I particularly liked Ms Prose's suggestion that although writing workshops can be helpful, the best way to learn how to write is to read widely. Ms Prose encourages readers to read closely, to read every word and pay attention to the words used. Reading like a writer requires, perhaps, a different blend of the reading skills used in some other occupations. Words, for writers, are the `raw material out of which literature is crafted'. Words, for readers, constitute a finished work. Ms Prose suggests that the reader consider each word used and ask: `.. what sort of information is each word - each word choice - trying to convey?' For some of us, that conscious slowing down of reading won't always be easy.

`Details are what persuade us that someone is telling the truth - a fact that every liar knows instinctively and too well.'

There's advice about words, sentences, and paragraphs, about narration and character, about dialogue, details and gestures. What makes this advice come alive is the examples Ms Prose gives, and the writers whose work she draws on to demonstrate the points she makes. This leads to a list of book recommendations which inevitably, in my case, adds books to my personal `must read' list. But I'm drawn most immediately to want to read more work by Anton Chekhov. I like the way in which Ms Prose drew on her own reading of Chekhov's short stories, found examples of how he had successfully broken the `rules' of fiction writing which contradicted advice she had given her students. It isn't the contradiction I find interesting, it's the focus on how Chekhov wrote, on being receptive to the needs of any particular story.

`The advantage of reading widely, as opposed to trying to formulate a series of general rules, is that we learn there are no general rules, only individual examples to help point you in a direction in which you might want to go.'

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I purchased this book to improve my understanding of fiction's moving parts, to augment my sensitivity and sensibilities as a reader rather than feel like it's Gumball Rally all the way through to tick a box. 5 Stars. I also richly enjoyed Ms. Prose's writing and, for this reason, greatly valued her very useful guide to illuminating certain threads in fiction's vast tapestry of literary textures, hues, and mosaics. As Ms. Prose makes abundantly clear, there is no such thing as a definitive instruction manual for writing fiction. This seems to have disappointed a few reviewers here, and I'm not sure why. You're on your own to develop an artistic sensibility for telling written stories, for giving the reader your own interpretation of emotion, perception, judgment, tension, etc. as expressed through the prism of the English language, which is then reinterpreted through each reader's unique mechanisms for processing the text. As just one example, how do you explain to someone that what is true may not feel true to the reader, whereas fiction may seem very real? Which is why this book's premise and its contents are very good and indeed useful: good writing about good writing to percolate and expand one's own capacity for written expression or, in my case, merely an appreciation of such expression. She highlights some authors I've never heard of, and provides intelligent ideas to sensitize and spur the reader for more and greater discoveries. She doesn't tell you what you should do or think, thankfully.

Francine Prose, in "Reading Like a Writer," argues that creative writing cannot be taught in a classroom. A workshop may provide valuable encouragement and support for a fledgling writer, and a good instructor may show a novice how to edit his work more effectively. However, a writer learns his craft by reading and rereading the books, novels, plays, and short stories of great writers, and he improves his skills through practice. Prose recommends studying "meter with Ovid, plot construction with Homer, comedy with Aristophanes." She backs up her thesis by giving a host of examples from writers she admires, such as Austen, Hemingway, Joyce, Chekhov, and others who are a bit more obscure.

Prose discusses the basics, including the use of the exact word, sentence building, paragraphing, point of view, character, and dialogue. Close reading, she asserts, enables us to understand not only what the writer is stating, but also what he is implying. The subtext is often as important, if not more important, than the text itself. Throughout "Reading Like a Writer" are excerpts, some brief, some lengthy, from a variety of sources, followed by Prose's witty, insightful, and informative commentary. Why does the writer choose one particular word or phrase rather than another? How do the seemingly minor details and gestures in a scene sometimes convey more information than the characters' statements?

"Reading Like a Writer" is not a handbook or a manual. It is a love letter to the mysterious alchemy, the magic that occurs when a reader encounters a book, poem, or story that not only entertains him, but also moves and transforms him. Francine Prose's favorite writers may not be our favorites, but all readers who love literature will appreciate her enthusiasm and respect for the written word. Her suggestions about how to read more effectively are useful not just for budding writers but for anyone who would like to come away from a book with a deeper appreciation of the author's craft. As Prose says, "Reading this way requires a certain amount of stamina, concentration, and patience."" The reward for all of this effort lies in "the excitement of approaching, as nearly as you can hope to come, the hand and mind of the artist."

Sometimes you just need to get back to basics. That is the suggestion of author Francine Prose as she reflects on creative writing workshops and concludes that they are no substitute for careful, considerate reading of classic novels. With gusto, she jumps into a discussion of technique, and chapter by chapter she works her way through the many tools at an author’s disposal. Quoting liberally from authors as varied as Philip Roth, Jane Austen and Anton Chekov, Prose analyzes each selection and dissects what makes its sentences so effective and the narrative so compelling.

If you want to boil down the book to its essential message, it’s pretty straightforward and basic: read great writers, select your words with care, and craft your sentences instead of merely tossing words upon a page. And let’s be honest – most of us know this instinctively. The trick is learning HOW to shape those sentences and which details are necessary and which should be discarded. With her clear examples, Prose gave me new ways to consider writing and reading. For every principle she introduced, she would provide some good examples of that kind of writing. I do wish she’d included some unsuccessful writing samples to further illustrate her points.

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve had an English professor to critique my writing, and I’m sure it’s gotten sloppier. This book served as a refresher course, and in that capacity it works very well. I recommend it as a source of inspiration, a reminder to pay attention not just to what a writer says, but how he or she expresses it.

Reading and reviewing recently HOW FICTION WORKS by James Wood, I realized that my wife had this quite similar book by Francine Prose on her shelves, so I started to read it for comparison -- and how wonderful it is! Forget that Prose (great name!) is a writer. Think of her as a reader with much the same tastes as you have, the kind of person whose reviews on the store so impress you that you leave a comment, and comments grow to correspondence, to the point where you can't finish something without wondering what Francine thinks of it, and you find yourselves swapping book suggestions and getting into areas you'd never have dreamed about before. That kind of friend.

But Prose is indeed a writer and a teacher of writing, and her book is organized meticulously in units of increasing size: Words, Sentences, Paragraphs, Narration, Character, Dialogue, Details, Gesture. These are the titles of chapters two through nine of her book, though she ranges widely within each. Whereas James Wood tends to use his reading to lead into some aesthetic principle, Prose uses ideas to lead us into reading. And what reading! Here, for example, are the authors she quotes in one chapter (#4) of her book: Isaac Babel, Rex Stout, Paula Fox, Gabriel García Márquez, Jane Austen, Herman Melville, Jonathan Franzen, Gary Shteyngart, Dennis Johnson, and James Baldwin. Had I money to burn, I would keep an the store order window open while I was reading; I'm sure I would have added at least two dozen books to my cart by the end -- never mind the volumes already on my TBR pile that she has persuaded me to move to the top, such as the LIVING, LOVING, PARTY GOING trilogy by Henry Green, whom she extols as a master of dialogue.

I mention Green because her section on him also shows a slight downside to Prose's enthusiasms. She can get so excited about a writer that she just can't stop digging out more and more examples to share with you. In this chapter (the one on dialogue) she manages to quote nine whole pages of Scott Spencer's A SHIP MADE OF PAPER, lost in sheer admiration. But who am I to complain? It is just the consequence of being so personal, so refreshingly non-academic. Francine (you want to call her that) opens and closes each chapter with some anecdote from her experience that may have nothing to do with books at all. My favorite is a man who called in to CAR TALK on NPR to ask if he should buy a red Jeep or a scarlet Miata. Quick as a flash, the question came back: "So tell me, when did you get your divorce?" What can be learnt from one telling detail! And the joy of having such a lively companion to talk about it!

I was drawn to this book by some enthusiastic reviews by fellow readers. I was curious to find out what Ms Prose has to say on whether creative writing can be taught, keen to find out which writers she admires, which books she recommends, and why.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book: I particularly liked Ms Prose's suggestion that although writing workshops can be helpful, the best way to learn how to write is to read widely. Ms Prose encourages readers to read closely, to read every word and pay attention to the words used. Reading like a writer requires, perhaps, a different blend of the reading skills used in some other occupations. Words, for writers, are the `raw material out of which literature is crafted'. Words, for readers, constitute a finished work. Ms Prose suggests that the reader consider each word used and ask: `.. what sort of information is each word - each word choice - trying to convey?' For some of us, that conscious slowing down of reading won't always be easy.

`Details are what persuade us that someone is telling the truth - a fact that every liar knows instinctively and too well.'

There's advice about words, sentences, and paragraphs, about narration and character, about dialogue, details and gestures. What makes this advice come alive is the examples Ms Prose gives, and the writers whose work she draws on to demonstrate the points she makes. This leads to a list of book recommendations which inevitably, in my case, adds books to my personal `must read' list. But I'm drawn most immediately to want to read more work by Anton Chekhov. I like the way in which Ms Prose drew on her own reading of Chekhov's short stories, found examples of how he had successfully broken the `rules' of fiction writing which contradicted advice she had given her students. It isn't the contradiction I find interesting, it's the focus on how Chekhov wrote, on being receptive to the needs of any particular story.

`The advantage of reading widely, as opposed to trying to formulate a series of general rules, is that we learn there are no general rules, only individual examples to help point you in a direction in which you might want to go.'

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I heard Francine Prose speak recently and was taken with her approach to writing (revise endlessly) which matches the advice I give students. And I read her Reading Like a Writer with an eye to the rethinking how I teach expository writing. I wasn't disappointed. She approaches craft by attending to subtle details and by sensitive, savory reading. Proses focuses on words, sentences, paragraphs, then on to narration, character and more. And she doesn't just trot out Austen, Babel and Chekhov (though Chekhov gets his own chapter) as stylists but relies also on the likes of John LeCarré, Raymond Chandler, Rebecca West, Denis Johnson, and Rex Stout.

Like Joseph Williams in Style, Prose gives tacks from examples to concepts but she manages to have more timeless examples and less machinery than Williams. What also comes through for me is Prose's enjoyment, delight even, in others' fine writing, unlike Stanley Fish's tone in How to Write a Sentence, in which Fish mostly seems to have written to hear himself talk. Throughout Prose focuses on useful and challenging topics that I am already planning to use in class, including a wonderful discussion of paragraph breaks that any writer can benefit from. It's a book I look forward to reading with students.

I love Francine Prose's novels and her journalism. So, I figured this would be the same sort of clever, sardonic, on-the-mark writing that I have come to enjoy. Instead, I found an ultra-serious book that takes apart writing by the masters (and many new authors as well) and slowly analyzes paragraphs word by word. It's illuminating material, but also exhausting. I'm a very quick reader, but I found that one chapter took the stuffing out of me. So, it took forever to get through this book. However, I'm not complaining.

Once I was done, I felt that I had learned a great deal. More to the point, I had learned that all those stupid rules you learn from sub-standard writing teachers ("never use a narrator who dies") are just plain wrong. Then she goes on to prove it by taking each rule and showing how Chekov violates the rule in a beautiful short story. You want to scream at the top of your lungs: "I KNEW it!"
Best of all is the Q&A at the end of the book in which she talks about her theory of teaching writing classes, which is why I call this an MFA in a book.

My only question is why the publisher subtitled this "A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them." This isn't just for aspiring writers, this is for writers of any stripe. There isn't a writer of any ability--even those churning out bestsellers--who couldn't benefit from Prose's exacting study of words.

It's not simple reading, but then nothing truly special ever is.

Author Francine Prose's latest non-fiction book Reading Like a Writer, a Guide for People who Love Books and for Those who Want to Write Them, brings to the study to literature exactly what the study of literature needs: literature. She reads a text for what it offers as a unique assemblage of words into sentences into paragraphs into chapters into volumes. The author of a great work of literature creates carefully, deliberate placing each word for meaning and effect.

To study literature this way, one needs time. Time to read slowly, to savor the words, to appreciate the gift of literature. One might also need a dictionary. And of course Strunk and White's Elements of Style--a textbook developed early in the last century to set out in the clearest, most direct terms the basic rules of grammar and punctuation and how these things combined with our carefully chosen words create style.

In its pithy way, USA Today called Prose's book "A love letter to the pleasures of reading." That's exactly what it is. It is also a love letter to the pleasure of learning to write. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of writing that makes an author's work unique--words, sentences, paragraphs, narration, character, dialogue, details, gesture. The closing two chapters offer insights into "Learning from Chekhov" and "Reading for Courage." Prose draws on works of great writers and models reading to write. That is, by reading great works carefully, a student of literature who wishes to write develops a personal database of who does what well and learning to turn to specific writers for specific help.

For example, a writer struggling to effectively communicate character through dialogue might turn to authors he knows does that well--or to Chapter 6 in Prose's book. There the writer will find a close reading of passages from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility in which she does just that. The writer can take from that reading an example of just how to.

Prose's book unhooks literature from the life-support of the classroom full of sartorial know-it-all professors with their one and only way of reading a work and their critical methods--feminist, Marxist, Freudian, sociological, and on and on--to show that the life-support is totally unnecessary; the patient breathes quite independently, thank you.

To anyone whose parents suggest he or she study something other than English in college the better to secure a good job, I say take that advice. If you love literature and want to read it well, all you really need is Prose's book.

This book caught my eye recently mostly because the cover of the book states that it is like a long love letter to reading. This statement really intrigued me and I have to admit that I wanted to start reading this book immediately. I am so glad that I bought this book and began to read it because I really learned a lot of writing, and reading from its pages. Francine Prose discusses a lot of important points in her books about how to be a great writer by being a great reader at the same time. She stresses how to focus on every word, sentence and paragraph because each word or phrase is deliberately chosen by the author to convey their message. Another wonderful point she mentions is that there are no rules in literature and by reading literature we can define how some writers are able to successfully bend these "unspoken" rules. She emphasizes her argumentative points by choosing examples of literature, short stories and poetry to convey to her audience the importance of reading every word. These short blurbs of literature and short stories really made my wishlist of books to read grow by leaps and bounds. She also stresses how literature can been seen as an endless source of courage and confirmation to writers and readers and it an idea I have always found in my own life. Her humor and wit shine throughout the book and she inspired me to focus on every word I read and slow my pace when I am reading a book. I even want to go back to the books that I have loved so long and read every word again and focus on all the things that I learned from this book. This book is a wonderful and inspiring companion for any writer or reader and I plan returning to it often when I find myself rushing through a good book.

If you have been exposed to Literary Criticism or Creative Writing, you probably dash for the bar or the loo when a practitioner comes within range. Here, though, is one you can stick around for. Perversely for her type, Ms. Prose loves literature--yes, really loves it. Also, as Barbara Tuchman might say, her writing lacks the modern virtue of incomprehensibility.

Her method fits into no discernable school, structure, dialetic, or theory. Instead, she selects a hundred or so excerpts from her forty or fifty favorite authors (an unremarkable list; you will know almost all of them), and follows each excerpt with a lucid discourse on why it is great. This is teaching by example, suffusion by osmosis, and she is a master of the technique.

Among her heresies: clarity is a high virtue; writing is very hard work; craft counts more than class or ethnicity; within reason, conventions of grammar and style matter (Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" as a fiction writer's resource? Is she kidding? No.) Above all, great writers slave over EVERY word, so we should read accordingly, that is, SLOWLY. Heresy again.

Ms. Prose has a lot in common with William Zinsser, author of "Writing to Learn" and "On Writing Well". On the nonfiction side, James B. Stewart's "Follow the Story" belongs in their company. I hope they all know each other. They sparkle in an otherwise dismal field.

Writers are always trying to express their stories, their ideas, in ways that provoke thought and understanding. What do I accomplish with this book or short story? What does it mean to me or to the reader? To then read what someone else understood in your work can be disconcerting. Of course, any understanding not only depends on the sentence or phrase under consideration, but also on what comes before and after to flavor that understanding.

In Reading Like a Writer, Francine Prose describes what she understands from portions of several works and what writers might learn from them in very specific instances. Many of her examples are from classic works that a good number of people would have read, have access to, or at least heard of. A well-read person might agree with her interpretations. The important thing here is that this was her understanding and what she learned as a writer.

For some people, whether they are writers or not, enjoying a work of fiction is more important than understanding how the author managed to tell about people and events using literary traditions. However, it is impossible for writers to read anything the same way once they have begun their own forays into the field. They find themselves asking "how did he do that" more and more often and reading for pleasure takes on a whole new meaning.

Prose demonstrates how to look at others' works in an analytical way that can also preserve the sense of awe the reader feels when indulging in the enjoyment of someone else's works. She also encourages us to read works we may have avoided, because we didn't know why they are generally so well regarded.

Reading Like A Writer is, as its title suggests, a guide to help the committed reader look closer to better detect and enjoy the countless tricks and subtleties writers painstakingly put into their work. It is divided up into chapters based on the categories that usually go into any story, such as Paragraphs, Narration, Character, etc. Each is gone into in minute yet accessible detail, with an example on every page letting you pause and examine the writer's skill and effectiveness. Prose's examples are both well known (Chekhov, Tolstoy) as well as off-the-beaten path, which does a lot to assure you that it's not only the big boys with all the talent. The book is written in a warm and reassuring tone, as if a friend is telling all this to you, and is aware of the insecurities any writer feels when trying to put thoughts to paper. Of particular merit is the last chapter, where Prose writes about the Courage it takes for the writer to go through such introspection and exposure in getting their work read. I'm not sure if this is the most revolutionary writing book out there, but it was very interesting to read throughout and gave me as much of a heightened interest in writing as any college course I have taken. Highly recommended to any devoted reader.

In addition to having been a librarian for more than three decades, I also have been a freelance, self-employed developmental editor and copyeditor for nearly as long. I've earned a useful supplemental income reading manuscripts, both fiction and nonfiction, and making well-considered suggestions not about plot and character development -- that's the job of the author's agent and the publisher -- but about word choice, sentence structure, and chapter organization. ("`Anybody' jars the flow here; try `anyone', which has one less syllable. And make this a one-sentence paragraph to emphasize your point.") Of course, I've also been a heavy reader all my life, since even before I started school. After I began reading like an editor, though, I found myself unconsciously thinking about the words the author had chosen in whatever narrative I was currently engaged in. Francine Prose (what a felicitous name for an author!) is an advocate, practically an apostle, of the practice of "close reading." Modern critics tend to concentrate on an author's biography, political beliefs, and other not very relevant matters rather than examining the beauty (or not) of the writing itself, the language the author determines to use. Prose developed her approach to this by teaching literature and writing classes -- something a great many published writers do, between the appearance of their first couple of novels (by which they establish their credibility) and reaching the exalted heights of multiple best-seller-dom (if they ever do).

She begins at the atomic level, with words, which are to writing what notes are to music. Using examples as dissimilar as Flannery O'Connor and Herman Melville, she works her way step by step through a piece of prose, showing how careful word choice can promote a paragraph from good to perfect. Writing is the product of thousands of these small decisions. Then she considers the sentence in the same fashion, and then the paragraph. In the matter of narration, the author argues that who is telling the story is less important than who is hearing it, and under what circumstances. It may be easier to tell a tale to a secret listener, even if that person never appears in the story. Some famous novels (those by Dostoevsky come to mind) feature characters who explicitly reel off their whole life stories to strangers, though modern readers would find this incredible in real life. The chapter on character is a bit weak compared to what came before, with Prose giving lengthy examples from Austen, Eliot, Flaubert, and Heinrich von Kleist (whom I confess I've never read), but never really getting into the theory behind character development. Then she goes on to the problem of dialogue, which young writers are told ought not to resemble conversation in real life, with all its hesitations and stammers, nor should it be made to substitute for exposition. Still, she points out, if one eavesdrops in a coffee shop, one finds that most conversation serves multiple social and psychological purposes, and a fictional narrative can certainly make good use of such multitasking. And what isn't said can be as important as what is. But well-handled dialogue can also be one of the most effective ways of taking the reader inside the head of the characters, delineating their purposes and motives, and advancing the plot generally. The principal examples she gives in this chapter are from the works of Henry Green, a genuine master of revealing dialogue. Then comes a chapter on what Prose calls the "details." Is God really in them? Properly sketched and plausible details in a story are what convince the reader that the narrator is telling the truth. (Police investigators understand this, too.) But what does one do about the plethora of detail with which Kafka describes Gregor Samsa? And sometimes the detail is what you most remember about a story, like the slice of watermelon or the bloody potato in Chekhov. Again, it may be an effect of my editorial activities, but I always notice the "telling details" in a story. Prose's final section deals with gesture -- which I would not have identified as one of the major considerations in writing a novel, at the same level as character and dialogue. In fact, I would expect gesture to be more important in film than on the printed page. She makes a good argument for avoiding what she calls "generic" gestures, with interesting examples from Kafka, Joyce, and Henry James, though I think I would have included all this in the chapter on detail. Finally, there are two chapters of more general authorial observation and advice in which Prose insists that budding young writers read the stories of Chekhov, and then sums up the reasons why you can't be a writer without being a reader. It's an interesting volume, and certainly well worth reading, though it has the feel of a series of separate lectures or conversations simply brought together between two covers.

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Reviewed by C.J.Singh (Berkeley, CA)
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Francine Prose advises apprentice fiction writers to do close readings of classics to learn characterization, writing dialogues, and other aspects of the narrative craft. Good advice.

However, she prefaces her main theme by trashing the current Writers Workshop practice of critiquing apprentice drafts. "Imagine Milton enrolling in a graduate program for help with 'Paradise Lost,' or Kafka enduring the seminar in which his classmates inform him that, frankly, they just don't believe the part about the guy waking up one morning to find he's a giant bug" (page 1).

This is along the same lines as Carol Bly and Cynthia Loveland's trenchant critique in their recent book, "Against Workshopping Manuscripts: A Plea for Justice to Student Writers." (Their example is vivid: "Say a first-year MFA student named William Butler Yeats puts up a poem to be workshopped. Well, there he is with the hair and all, the clothes so last year you couldn't believe--but wait, this writing group do schmooze, no outright meanness ever. Civility, Camaraderie. No overt jeering. They listen to him. Then they take it in turns to comment. They smile deeply at Yeats and say they really liked how he wrote about an older fellow, the way he did, because older guys' stories need to be told, too, but if he would kind of not be so negative about the old guy being like a 'paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick, unless soul clap its hands and sing,' he might reach a wider audience.")

The above two scenes are amusing; however, I disagree. My experience of participating in writing workshops is more in accord with the view of Wallace Stegner, the founder of Stanford's Creative Writing Program. Stregner wrote: "Minds grow by contact with other minds. The bigger the better, as clouds grow toward thunder by rubbing together."

The book's jacket indicates that Francine Prose has taught writing workshops at Iowa, Columbia, and Harvard. On page 2, she writes, "Perhaps I should just go ahead and admit that I have been committing criminal fraud." She suggests a different approach to writing workshops: teach participants how to line edit or copyedit their work . Okay, no fresh crime in that.

However, it's amusing to note several grammatical lapses in a book that exhorts: "Among the questions that writers need to ask themselves in the process of revision... perhaps the most important question is: Is this grammatical?" (page 43). For example? "The paragraph goes on, at length, tracking Magnus Pym, whom we learn, has been en route for sixteen hours and is headed.... " (page 145). It could well be that the publisher's copy editor incorrectly changed the author's "who" to "whom." Perhaps authors should also do a close reading of their copy editor's "corrections."

Throughout the book, the author presents excerpts from classics and contemporary writing, which along with her illuminating comments make instructive reading.

-- C J Singh

Prose's love of classical literature is clear throughout the pages of this well-written and informative guide; as the front cover blurb from USA Today put it, this book is a "love letter to the pleasures of reading."

However, it's also elitist and takes several superior swipes at genre fiction. In her exhortations to readers who want to be writers, Prose does make a compelling case for learning to write by reading classical literature ... and reading it slowly, word by word. Her list of "books to be read immediately" combined with the excerpts she included as her examples has added a considerable number of "must-reads" to my already teetering "to -read" pile.

While reading Prose's well-written guide to writers, I was struck with a sense of someone yearning for a bygone era - an era in which life was slower and more easy-paced, and readers had the leisure time to sit and read 1000+ page tomes slowly. For that reason, I found much of the admittedly good advice contained in this book could not apply to me as either a reader or a writer.

If you scan the negative reviews of this book, you will find those who claim the book has too little too say about why particular excerpts were written the way they were or that the Ms. Prose spent too long, for example, discussing why Flannery O'Connor chose the word "grandmother". (Even assuming O'Connor did not ponder precisely which word to use in her excellent short story, surely there is benefit in analyzing why that word works so much better than another. That is something of the point.) Obviously the question of whether she gets her stew just right is a matter of taste, but she includes concrete examples, with analysis, for each chapter, while conveying her contagious enthusiasm for writing.

Francine Prose's discussion of gesture and what makes some examples effective and others counterproductive, for instance, is superb. She ably demonstrates the difference between cliched space-filler and gestures that convey meaning. Ms. Prose will have you paying attention to more elements of a story than you likely did before.

One negative reviewer seemed particularly upset with her choice of recommended books. I agree that Le Carre's best novel was not chosen. I would have gone with different selections for several authors, in fact. But, really, if you are reading this book for the list at the back, just read the list at the back. If you don't like it, find a list of books online. But if you want some insight into why Ms. Prose likes particular passages and some analysis of why those passages work, then read the whole thing. Almost certainly you, like one of the one star reviewers, will be introduced to some writing that you will want to pursue further.
I do not know that higher praise can be offered a book like this.

Ms. Prose provides more practical analysis and tips than Anne Lammott in Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, for instance, and less of an overarching mission than James Wood in his How Fiction Works, but I think it nicely fills the gap between the two. If you enjoyed either of those works, I am sure you will find this book worthwhile as well.

This is a pretty wonderful book. In it, Francine Prose takes as her starting point the great insight of the Romantic critics: a work of art is not primarily a criticism of life. Before anything else, it is an addition to it. Consquently, to be properly received, what an author has made must first be read word by word, line by line. Only through such a process can a reader come to feel the precise experience the work embodies and then speak with any accuracy of it.
When I was a young reader, the historical approach to literary art was all the rage. Source studies and endless analogue searches betrayed the unexpressed assumption that it was the Elizabethan Age, not a specific author, who had written Shakespeare's plays. These days race, gender and ethnic concerns, often undermining authors of genius, continue pretty much in deadly fashion to rule reading in schools. Not surprisingly then, one can come across otherwise bright young people who blithely announce that reading Shakespeare or Mark Twain would be a waste of their time since these authors' views on overriding issues like war or race are allegedly so benighted.
Prose shows us that taking the pains to respond to what an artist has actually created is likely to lead even such smug young readers as these away from today's fashionable sand traps.

The aptly named Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer is a total treat. I usually find my attention wandering when I read non-fiction, and although I have a bookshelf or two of writing books, many of them aren't read the whole way through.
This book, though, is a chosen book at bedtime, a chosen book on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Prose reinvigorates me, makes me curious about the writers she quotes and dissects. As a product of the American educational system, I learned early on to hate dissection of books - I still can't read The Great Gatsby without wincing. But here, the analysis is fascinating, non-banal, stimulating. It makes me want to both read the books she mentions and re-read my favorites and diagram them.
This book will make me a better writer and has filled a gap in my education so I can also be a better reader.

Just as our native spoken language is learned via a process of mimicry - listening to others and trying it out for ourselves, rather than sitting in a classroom and learning "the rules" - so it is with writing. The best way to learn how to write well is to notice how others have done it, i.e. read, and read very closely. As most published authors will tell you, they learned more from the work of their heroes than they ever did from Creative Writing 101. Francine Prose is a champion of this approach. In the opening chapters she mercifully sets aside "literary theory" in favour of a return to the close reading encouraged by the New Criticism of the 1960s - instead of worrying about the socio-political implications of a "text", we get down to the business of actually looking at the words on the page and figuring out how they do their work. She begins with the smallest unit - individual words - and works her way up through chapters dedicated to sentences, paragraphs, narration, character, dialogue, details and gesture (these last two were revelations for me). She finishes with chapters on Chekhov, reading for "courage", and finally some recommended reading with Strunk & White being the only "How To" book amongst them. Along the way she gives some fine advice backed up by solid examples, such as why fiction writers should reject writing school clichés such as "show, don't tell", or at the very least acknowledge that sometimes telling is far more effective than showing. Above all, I relished Prose's plain-speaking honesty about her own self-doubts and failings as a writer and a teacher, and her implicit acknowledgement of something we all know but rarely hear said: in writing, clarity of communication is far more important than following arcane rules. And that's what reading teaches us: "the advantage of reading widely, as opposed to trying to formulate general rules, is that we learn that there are no general rules, only individual examples to help point you in a direction you might want to go." (p.68)

I think Ms. Prose chose wisely when she selected her title, as this book offers rewards for both those who hold no writing pretensions (but love to read) and those who do (and -- you guessed it -- love to read). Well, that's one of her points -- if you hope to be a writer, you'd better not only be a reader, but a damned serious one. She is. The proof is between the dust covers.

As a reader, you'll enjoy her list at the end of the book entitled "Books You Must Read Immediately." These titles are referenced and excerpted liberally in the book itself, so you'll get a taste of the immediacy right away. It will also open your eyes to ways of reading -- from the simple examination of "le mot juste" to the more complex challenges of unwrapping sentences, paragraphs, and beyond.

In fact, as a teacher, you might well use her excerpts as examples of how an expert reader might effectively analyze literature as a living, breathing organism (the now-gone authors' successful bid for a form of immortality, if you will).

If you hope to be a writer, as Prose herself is, this book will show you how nourishing examples both from the canon and from contemporaries can be. Prose scoffs at the notion of avoiding reading as you write (for fear of unconsciously "copying"). She claims you SHOULD seek out the masters -- especially ones whose strengths are areas you are presently struggling with as a writer (say, plotting, characterizing, or creating a proper mood).

If you only buy SOME books and borrow others from the library, this would be one of those ones you'd be better off purchasing. Why? Because it is and will remain a worthy resource on your shelf -- a "go-to book," so to speak.

Go ahead. Take the plunge. If you love reading and/or writing, it's about as safe a bet as you can make.

Why was it okay for Gabriel Garcia Marquez to write a book-long paragraph but not okay for the average writer today? Why is there so much 'telling' and not 'showing' in classic novels when editors keep telling writers that just the opposite is the correct form? What is it about authors like Chekhov, Tolstoy, Nabokov or Woolf that either makes the average writer wince with terror or sigh with longing--and envy! Can a fledgling writer learn from these and other great masters...and still enjoy the road in the process?

Distinguished novelist, critic and essayist Francine Prose answers these questions and more in this fascinating study of how paying particular attention to the sentences and techniques of great classic authors can enrich the mind and actually improve a person's writing style. Author Prose warns the novice writer against only reading works of today's commercial, bestselling authors and advises to "slow down and read every word" in the case of classic novels. She uses an eloquent analogy to demonstrate her point: "It's something like the way you experience a master painting, a Rembrandt or a Velazquez, by viewing it not only far away but also up close, in order to see the brushstrokes."

Using key examples taken from various masterpieces, Prose demonstrates in separate chapters how to pay special attention to words, sentences, paragraphs, narration, character, dialogue, and details, and gesture. Which masterpieces should a writer read? A list of titles "to be read immediately" is included at the end of the book.

Armchair Interviews says: A sophisticated, smart, must read for writers who love language and the classics and who are serious about their own writing.

This is an excellent book on reading and writing and the title says it all. It was eye opening to know what I, as a reader should be aware when reading good and bad writing.

While I was reading the book, I felt like I was sitting in one of Ms. Prose courses and she, as my English professor, was explaining to me how this author did this and why another author wrote this way. It enabled me to realize the fine points of word choice and paragraph structure, which I will remember when writing, in addition to how it is the writers' job to engage the reader with his or her writings.

This book allowed me to see how a writer should write or should look at writing their piece and how I, as the reader, should respond to their writing. It was especially poignant when Ms. Prose said we should slow down when reading. This is against the norm of reading as fast as you can. However, when you read too fast you miss the most important parts of any piece. Reading is not about racing; it is about enjoying the adventure. It also provided me with thought on how I can learn from the classic and contemporary writers to improve my own writing. However, I am not sure I will be able to read "all" the 117 books she recommends to be read immediately. I will just savor each, one at a time.

If you love to read and want to read more effectively, or if you are a writer who wants to write the next hit novel, read this book. It will provide you with numerous points on writing and reading that you never thought of before. After reading this book, you will never look at a book again the same way.

Thanks Ms. Prose for a wonderful lesson. I enjoyed your class.

In her book Reading Like a Writer Francine Prose, herself the author of some 14 novels as well as other works of nonfiction, advocates "close reading"--reading fiction "word by word, sentence by sentence, pondering each deceptively minor decision that the writer has made"--both as a means of appreciating literature and as a practical aid in writing one's own prose. After introducing her method in chapter one, Prose spends the next eight chapters showing us how it's done, focusing initially on individual words, then sentences, and broadening her focus eventually to consider characters and dialogue and narration.

Prose quotes extensively from a great many authors--Austen and Carver and Hemingway and Le Carré and a host of writers I'd not heard of before--and after each passage takes it apart for us, pointing out how the author establishes the nature of a relationship via dialogue, for example, or makes a story credible through the use of a well-chosen detail. There is much here to think on. Prose explains, for example, that dialogue in real life is rarely a simple matter of two or more speakers exchanging information, and so it is nearly always a mistake to make fictional dialogue merely expository:

"...most conversations involve a sort of sophisticated multitasking. When we humans speak, we are not merely communicating information but attempting to make an impression and achieve a goal. And sometimes we are hoping to prevent the listener from noticing what we are not saying, which is often not merely distracting but, we fear, as audible as what we are saying. As a result, dialogue usually contains as much or even more subtext than it does text. More is going on under the surface than on it. One mark of bad written dialogue is that it is only doing one thing, at most, at once."

She illustrates multi-layered dialogue with excerpts from Henry Green's novel Loving and David Gates's story "The Wonders of the Invisible World," among others. In the same chapter Prose criticizes the sort of writing one finds too often in historical novels:

"This notion of dialogue as a pure expression of character that (like character itself) transcends the specifics of time and place may be partly why the conversations in the works of writers such as Austen and Brontë often sound fresh and astonishingly contemporary, and quite unlike the stiff, mannered, archaic speech we find in bad historical novels and in those medieval fantasies in which young men always seem to be saying things like, 'Have I passed the solemn and sacred initiation test, o venerable hunt master?'"

Elsewhere Prose reminds us that characters don't have to be likeable, just interesting. In fact it is a greater achievement to make a character engaging if he is not someone the average person can identify with: Patricia Highsmith's sociopath Tom Ripley is a great example of the type.

In the book's final two chapters Prose writes, respectively, about Anton Chekhov--whose stories serve to remind us that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to literature--and about the benefits to writers of reading: reading allows one to see examples of prose done well, and it shows us that there are innumerable ways of going about writing well:

"Reading can show you how capacious and stretchy fiction is, how much it can accommodate, and how far it has expanded beyond the straight and narrow path from point A to point B."

Writers, that is, should have the courage to experiment with their own particular talents.

Reading Like a Writer is not, strictly speaking, a "guide" for writers, as its subtitle asserts, at least not in the traditional sense. Readers--writers--should not expect to find in Prose's pages specific directions for creating characters and writing dialogue and so on. But what Prose has to say can certainly be a help to writers. Reading her book is probably very similar to sitting in on one of the author's reading seminars: we're invited to sample a bunch of great stories, and part of what makes them great is pointed out to us, and we can go on from this experience, presumably, to apply what we've learned to appreciating literature more fully on our own. Prose teaches well. And along the way she introduces us to a great many authors we may not otherwise have heard of. Readers will likely leave her book with an author or two whose work they'll want to read more of. Another service Prose performs in her book.

Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003)

One of the best books for fiction writers out there. Anyone who left bad reviews clearly doesn't care about the craft of writing. This one, along with How Fiction Works, should be required reading for any aspiring prose writer. Read it now - you will learn so much about yourself and your craft.

Francine Prose is successful at providing 'good' quotations: "I believe it's necessary to hold the concept of clarity as an EVEN HIGHER IDEAL than grammatical correctness" and "it's essential to READ great sentences - that is, the sentences of great sentence-writers - along with your style book" . . . and, the part about how encountering one's childhood handwriting "can inspire a confrontation with the Mystery of Time," The latter may mean less to readers than it does the writer who is perhaps enamoured of the sound of that sentence & paragraph?

The reader would be better served by having the chapter titles 'top' each page of pertinent chapters. "Sentences" is one chapter; others include "Learning from Chekhov" . . . "Reading for Courage" (one fear shared by writers is that they may discover something about themselves they "would just as soon not know"), and the final chapter: "Books to be read Immediately." Authors include Rex Stout (I recommend "The Doorbell Rang" & also, becoming acquainted with the career of Soviet writer Isaac Babel's (see page 263) . . . and Philip Roth (doesn't the Lindbergh book motivate you to spew forth many words?)

Perhaps readers could construct their own List: *Books I'll take to my Grave*? And while each of us acknowledge our individual debt to some authors mentioned by Francine Prose, and others, how many readers will recognize any consolation in the poem offered by Prose on pages 266-268?

The contents of this book, as shared by Francine Prose, are provocative and intended to be hellpful. Obviously an author doesn't have a pre-sort mechanism to run readers through.

I stumbled across this book while, believe it or not, researching speed reading. While studying the book "Breakthrough Rapid Reading", I couldn't get over the feeling that this just wasn't right. I stopped my studies and read this book instead. I'm glad I did. I thought reading faster would be a good thing, and here's a book telling me the opposite of what "Breakthrough Rapid Reading" was telling me. Except "Reading Like A Writer" made sense. It even tells me to try reading aloud sometimes!

I noticed some of the reviews were negative because it wasn't as analytical as they would like. Or that they didn't read the books she read so it was a challenge to follow. What this book shows you is what you can get out of close reading by way of example. Cliff notes also give you analysis of literature, but will never tell you what is going through a writer's mind while reading. How they painstakingly struggle over words and sentences. I think it has helped me become a better reader by helping me appreciate what good writers go through and to not rush through my reading, and it encouraged me to read those books she talks about so fondly.

This well-composed book brilliantly book took me back to my early writing workshops and college classes. Francine gets you to think deeply about many different elements of writing by including magnificent citations from talented authors that will both terrify and inspire you. It is a daunting and dense book to get through as it requires close reading, but is well worth the effort if you are investing time in developing your writing skill.

This book is important for people who want to read with more focus, and for people who write and want to learn more about writing. It is simply very very important to read Ms. Prose's book to learn what good writing is. Tango, Murder, and Money by the Bay: Rick and Florrie Dance, Bullets Fly

Felicitously named, Francine Prose has written the book nobody else dared to--a work for writers analyzing in precise terms what the great ones do with words. There's no theory here, no post-this or neo-Marxist that, just a delicious savoring of the goods from many canonical writers (Flaubert, Austen, Stendahl) and just as many contemporary novelists I'd never heard of until I picked up Prose. As a college English instructor, I've assigned stories by Truman Capote which I have my classes read almost literally word-for-word, analyzing how the least choice of noun, verb or adjective enhances our understanding of the characters and their motivation. Seeing Prose do the same with dozens of brilliant works, I'm heartened that the gourmand approach to literary criticism is far from dead, and that long after the trendiest -isms have been laid to rest, every child has at least been accounted for, and the quantitative, time-management model of reading has scorched its last cylinder, people will still be poring over great writing, marveling at the exquisite choices plucked by the masters over many others. This much-needed book will improve your writing and enrich your life.

I'm only 60 pages into the paperback version, which I just bought a few days ago....and I can't wait to finish it, just so I can go re-read all the classics that I feared, like Moby Dick. Ironically I recently got half way through Moby Dick, and stopped out of boredom, and was just tired of reading the meandering plot. Upon completing Prose's book, I will return to Moby Dick, or perhaps start it all over again.

It's like Francine Prose just showed me the "DaVinci Code" for books! I always wanted to read all of Charles Dickens's books, but kept putting it off, and think I've only read one my whole life, and I'm 56 years old.

Books are very important to me, and Francine's book just gave me a new lease on life!

Felicitously, while this book is about reading and writing prose, the author's own prose is superlative. Her breadth and depth of both classic and well-established contemporary works, that are used to illustrate her points, enriches and enhances the discussions of this book.

In my view, there are two main messages that the author, with admirable success, attempts to convey to the reader. The first is that if you want to write highly regarded creative fiction, the best route, aside from writing itself, is to study and analyze the great fiction writers of the past and present. Do not read superficially or hurriedly merely for pleasure, but take careful notice of how the desired effects of the greatest works of fiction are achieved.

The second important message is to recognize that rules, while deserving respect, are not prison bars designed to confine the fiction writer to a narrowly circumscribed space. Yes, know the rules, but don't hesitate to break them if in your opinion what you are doing will serve the best intersests of your story. The great masters who preceded us, after all, never sudied the "rules" nor did they have MFA's or MA's in creative writing. As valuable as they may be. neither is necessary or sufficient to write with skill and talent. Go beyond the boundaries of rules if you sincerely believe that doing so will impart greater organicity and integrity to your writing.

The author, Francine Prose, selects and subjects the desired effects of high-order fiction writing to careful scrutiny with crystal clarity and intellectual rigor. She discusses such topics as words, sentences, paragraphs, narrative, dialogue. details, and gestures. A special chapter is devoted to what can be learned from the prose of Chekhov's stories, although most of the discussion uses novels for illustrative purposes.

To the best of my knowledge, this book is uniques and certainly extraordinary in form for what it has to provide the aspiring or even experienced writer.

Anyone who has been involved in creative writing classes has heard the question "Can creative writing really be taught?" Well- aware of the skepticism about this subject Francine Prose nonetheless believes that better writing comes out of close reading.

She gives many illustrations to teach the reader how to deal with the elements, 'words' and 'sentences' and on another level 'plot' and 'character'.She provides examples from the work of --Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov, Philip Roth, Iaac Babel, and many others.She is clearly a skilled , sensitive reader herself who is essentially transmitting lessons she herself has learned about her craft.

I believe most writers will be happy to have this work as part of their library, not necessarily because it will wholly transform their writing , but because it may provide here and there tips on how to improve it.

I would only point out that there are many different ways writers read their predecessors. Most of them after all have not been students of creative writing courses. Harold Bloom has defined the essential relation between apprentice and master as the 'anxiety of influence.' . The young writer absorbs the influence of the older in order to overcome and slay the predecessor. Consider how Joyce does this in 'Oxen in the Sun' where he goes through the whole history of English Literature, knocking off one giant after the other with the presumption that in the end he will in end be alone 'paring his fingernails' above them all.

Another point I would make is one I believe Prose certainly understands. All the effort, teaching learning, acquiring of technique in the world , all the close reading and study cannot provide a formula for making a true writer. As she herself says there is no such formula. A true writer comes as a unique voice. That writer may not have a mastery of many technical features of writing but has a voice distinct and memorable which I believe is a kind of gift of God.

Many of us long to have that voice, study and learn from reading of many books , including this excellent one but still cannot achieve a voice distinctive enough to truly be heard.

This book will make almost all its readers better readers, and may make many better writers, but it is doubtful that even one ' true writer' will come out of it.

For that look 'to the foul rag and bone shop of the heart' of that particular dreamer.

Super good and interesting essay with a lot of other books inside, so the best by me so far.

Libro molto bello ed interessante con un sacco di altri libri descritti all'interno, quindi per quanto mi riguarda, una delle cose migliori lette fino ad ora.

Francine Prose, in her new book: Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them challanges readers and writers to think carefully about the art of storytelling. With detail and emphasis on storyline and character development, Prose suggests, and I agree, that a writer must continually evolve into the understanding of enviornment and human interaction . . . so, it is in paying attention to the detail in the interaction of characters and creation of setting that the art of writing can become elevated. One other important thematic, and though it is not directly placed in your face by Prose: writers write, and, writers pay attention to the settings and detail of their own personal experiences and store this in their safe until such time that it is needed. Well done.

I thought this book would be stuffy, but I really enjoyed it. After a slightly dull beginning, Francine Prose dives in and shares with us all these books I've never heard of: The Marquise of O by Heinrich von Kleist, Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo, A Ship Made of Paper by Scott Spencer, and others.

She also analyzes various aspects of writing, such as plot, character, dialogue, and gesture, and provides examples from Chekhov of how every rule can be broken.

Thus, the book functions in two ways: as an insightful writing guide and a really great recommendation source.

Francine Prose (I'm sure authors would pick a less obvious num de plum) promises a guide for people who want to write books. Most of the reading guide is in the first section - and isn't exactly the most original advice: to dissect and analyse each word.

The rest of the book is more a mix of literary analysis, advice, and Prose's personal response to her classics. Not that this is uninteresting or bad, just not exactly what is described in the title.

In regards to her advice Prose is focussed on literary work, and isn't much of a fan of rule making, or specific advice. She admits that, for her, every writing lesson taught is accompanied by a profound need to teach the exceptions, subtleties, and examples of classic authors who broke said rule. So while being at times, non-specific, Prose does present balanced advice, packed with numerous examples from her mentioned authors.

Of course some might not prefer this approach, and thusly this one is recommended for those who need a more general read about literary works rather than those wanting the nuts and bolts of writing discussed.

The author who dared dissect Maya Angelou's poetry--and found it short on literary quality--is teaching us how to analyze text.

Francine Prose analyzes prose while taking the reader on the same journey writers take every day: examine every word, every sentence, and every paragraph. We listen to the music of the writing as it is being composed note by note. Along the way, Prose gives permission to break some rules of writing--but only when the words end up reaching a higher goal of conveying a meaning to that lapse.

A wonderful, strong book, that should be the cornerstone of any writer's library, but one that is also highly recommended to all lovers of literature.

Talia Carner, author,
Puppet Child and China Doll

Of course, the author's name is predestined! From Sentences through Paragraphs, Narragion, Character, Dialogue, Details, Gesture, to Chekhov and lists of Books to be read immediately(!), Prose shows with multiple examples how to read great literature (and simply good books) with attention to the writers' choices and techniques. Hopefully, one can remember some of these ideas when reading others' texts and writing one's own.
Carole Jean Tremblay author of The Patriot Conspiracy

So many manuals posited as books make one wish, upon completion, that one had spent the time writing instead. This, instead, is a book to buy, read slowly, savor, think about, annotate, and buy for your favorite reader/writer friends so you can talk about it with them. Reading Prose is like having a long, thoughtful conversation with an inspiring, creative, and accomplished friend (and not the accomplished friend you kind of hate or envy, but the one you deeply appreciate). The works she studies are a joy to revisit through her eyes if you know them already and a delight to discover if you don't. This is how every child should be taught to read: carefully, reflectively, word by word. I'm glad it wasn't too late for me to learn.

I read this for a creative writing course. After reading many "handbooks" on writing over the past few years, I can say that this was the first that went beyond nuts and bolts issues of technique to provide a perspective on the writer's point of view itself as subject matter. It made me conscious of my reading process, and has changed how I read. I can see now that I used to read mainly for plot. Events and actions made immediate sense to me. Now I read for the pleasures of character and style as well. Prose does an excellent job of describing an abstract process like reading. Recommended for writers, and those readers who are interested in how writers think.

Francine Prose, a writer and teacher reveals the secrets of writing from a reader's perspective. She informs us of how much of a struggle it is for writers and what can help overcome the obstacles. each chapter deals with an aspect of human nature and relates that to the craft of literature. With excerpts from various novels, classic and modern, this book will help the writer discover their own voice and I for one now seek a different approach in my reading style. I enjoyed this book quite a lot for its insights into the writing process.

Although it wasn't, itself, a page-turner, this book provided many interesting new lenses with which to view our own experiences as literary consumers. Her observations and insights were thought-provoking, and I imagine that my next casual read will now be a bit more in tune with literary techniques employed by the authors. I hope this analysis doesn't sour any future reading experiences by adding an extra critical voice in my head, alerting me to particular tactics employed for specific narrative objectives... Reading as a critic, for me, is far less enjoyable than reading for sheer pleasure--Ignorance can, in fact, often be bliss!

I strongly recommend this book.

As a writer of creative fiction who dreams of being published, a familiar knot formed in my stomach when I read the opening sentence of Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer. "CAN CREATIVE WRITING BE TAUGHT?" Just like that, in all caps, this question which opens the book will surely taunt the angst of aspiring authors and leave them, like me, holding their breath, waiting for the answer.

Whether you are one of those who love books or one who wants to write the books that become beloved, I strongly recommend this book. Although I am not going to reveal Ms. Prose's answer (only because I think you should read the book yourself!), I will say that this book rejuvenated my excitement for reading and was further inspiration for my writing.

In this book, it is as if Francine Prose is your own personal literature professor, standing at the front of the classroom of your mind and giving you permission, encouraging you even, to immerse yourself in the pleasure of books. For this reader, such "permission" was a breathe of fresh air (you mean reading is supposed to be enjoyed?) and the guidance Francine Prose offers rubs away detritus accumulated from college lit courses that were conducted more in the spirit of an anatomy lab and reading groups/mainstream media that peddle the notion (which many of us buy) that she who reads the most, the fastest, earns the Superior IQ medal of honor. By the time I finished the book, I was nearly salivating at the thought of alternately devouring and savoring the books Ms. Prose recommends at the end...just - for - the - fun - of - it!

As for the book being helpful for writers, I can only speak for myself and am somewhat reticent because, as the saying goes, "the proof is in the pudding." That being said, Ms. Prose does a superb job of navigating the area between prescribing formulaic dogma for creative writing (of course that's an oxymoron, but that doesn't stop many others from teaching it anyway!) and revealing such delicious insights into the art and practice of writing that I have most of the book dog-eared and underlined, awaiting my return. And I will, again and again.