13 Ways of Looking at the Novel

I was surprised at the number of typos in this otherwise very good book

What a marvelous book about writing, and what an ambitious undertaking: to read a hundred of the greatest novels in the span of just a couple years and then, while they were fresh in her mind, write an examination of the body from thirteen different point of view: the psychology of the novel, morality of the novel, art of the novel, etc. And it's a wonderful, thoughtful excursion. It's like walking through a museum of great writing with the best museum guide you can imagine by your side, sharing interesting anecdotes about the authors, comments on the times in which they wrote, how one novel influenced the next generation of writers, and how their writing changed the thinking of the next. And then the second half of the book is her commentary on all one hundred novels (actually a couple more than 100). Not a how-to book fro writers, but as good a book about writing the novel as I know.

Smiley is a fine writer and novelist herself, and it is interesting to read her opinions. But be very careful when reading her discussions of individual novels. I am currently reading The Tale of Genji, and I thought, since I am about three-quarters of the way through, that it would be interesting to read her thoughts on it. Imagine my dismay when she gave away in two or three sentences the major plot points of the Uji chapters that Lady Murasaki so carefully planned! I immediately scanned her discussion of some other novels that I had already read, and spoilers are often (though not always) present. In future, I will only read her essay after I've read the novel that she is discussing. I would never have read her piece on the novel that I am currently reading if I'd known how throughly she intended to damage my reading pleasure.

I heard about this book from an interview with Jane Smiley on NPR. As a beginning writer who has had ideas floating in her head for decades but not able to see my way clear to begin the process, I thought her book on the novel sounded intriguing. It is a wonderfully insightful about the novel as a form of story telling. I had a clear sense of what novels are all about as Smiley explains the beginnings of that written word form and as she explains her process as a writer. I had originally checked the book out from a library, but I was three chapters in when I realized I would be reading this book many times, so I purchased a copy. I was only sorry I could only get it in paperback form, because I think it may fall apart because I will be reading it many times.

Look forward to having this on my shelf as a reference source on novels -- both on theories for the genre and for the reviews of 100 novels Smiley read and reviewed here. I may not always agree on the reviews of ones I have read, but it is fun to have an informed voice with whom to disagree. For the ones I haven't read, Smiley helps me make choices and set priorities for my TBR.

The service was all right, however, the book itself was problematic. The type face was too small for me to read comfortably, so I ordered a used hard-cover copy from someone else. I did receive an okay for a return if the original order, but I wound up giving the book as a Christmas present to a younger reader with good eyes.

I like this book. Smiley is a clear and informative writer; I like her style. That said, I'm going to have to order this book in hard copy because trying to read it on my Nexus 7 Kindle app is horrid. I can't tell where I am in a chapter, bookmarks seem useless because there's no way to "go" to a bookmark. Kindle is convenient, but not a helpful way to read.

This review is on the physical book itself.The pages are so thin that they’re basically see through. When I look at a page, I can see the writing on the backside of the page. It makes it hard to focus because of my vision problems.

I bought this book a while ago as I was interested in the science behind the process of writing and thought it might help me to appreciate reading in more detail.I've tried to read it a few times but the academic style of the writing makes the book very hard to read. Her style is actually very chatty but it still felt to be heavy going.I was particularly interested in the hundred novels that the author had chosen to represent the novel. However quickly tired of reading about the books she had chosen. There were a few that I was curious but tended to find that I was not interested at all in books I had never even heard of. Several of those that I knew but had not read were interesting and I came away with a list of a few books that I am going to put on my reading list.It may be that this book would help someone who is trying to write a book but it didn't work for me due to the extended way that she expresses her points of view.

Stimulating and wise book

Thank you - as expected