Graywolf Press publishes “The Art of” series as an aid to writers and wannabes. But, you don’t have to be a writer to enjoy Joan Silber’s tour of time. From a detailed analysis of The Great Gatsby to Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude to Katherine Anne Porter, Silber shows how writers use time to tell their stories. Some stories use a triangle approach. Some use a spiral approach. Some writers tell a story backwards. Silber reveals the tricks Poe, Alice Munro, Raymond Carver, Chekhov, Henry James, and many other writers employ to structure their stories. This slim book, only 114 pages, can be read in one sitting. But you’ll be thinking about what Silber writes for a long, long time. GRADE: A
Sounds interesting. But does she cover time travel books?
No, Silber doesn’t cover time travel books, Jeff. But she does an excellent job in showing how to use time in the architecture of a story.
This is a thrilling idea and I will see if my university library has it. Thanks.
I’m planning on reading more books in this writing series, Patti! I like the fact that Graywolf Press is packaging them in quality paperback formats. Here’s the series so far:
Art of the Ending By Amy Bloom
Art of Description By Mark Doty
Art of Recklessness By Dean Young
Art of Attention By Donald Revell
Art of Subtext: Byond Plot By Charles Baxter
Art of Syntax By Ellen Bryant Voigt
Art of the Poetic Line By James Longenbach
Art of Time in Memoir By Sven Birkerts
This sounds fascinating. I’ll be finding it at the library. Thanks, George, for making me aware of this one.
I’ve always been old fashioned enough to prefer a straight timeline in novels, them more a writer makes me travel forward and back the less I usually like it. Yes, it works sometimes, but a lot of the time it just seems as if the writer is showing off: “look what I can do!”, like they are playing a game of Simon says with the reader. Simon says jump back a year! Simon says live through a flashback of this other character! Simon says admire my cleverness!”
Perhaps this book will open my eyes to the value, and skill in using time in novels when most of the time I tend to think it’s only a device used by weak writers to firm up weak plots.
There’s no doubt that handled badly, time-jumping can ruin a book or short story, Rick. But as Joan Silber points out, master writers use time in the architecture of their works. Her analysis of time in THE GREAT GATSBY is brilliant!
Sadly, my library system doesn’t have this book. It was published last June, so if they are going to get it, I’d think it would be there. Maybe I’ll try interloan.
I have a good relationship with our local librarians, Rick. They pretty much buy whatever I suggest. The library system doesn’t own the whole Graywolf series. But they will.
Damn, it ate my post halfway written.
Anyway, my library has it and I’ll get it when we get back from Florida. THE ART OF TIME IN MEMOIR also sounds interesting to me.
I may actually buy THE ART OF SYNTAX, Jeff. The series is uniformly priced at $12 a volume, but AMAZON has them for around $8.
I’ve ordered it through library inter-loan. About 2-3 weeks, they say. I suspect it going to make me want to re-read some things, for which I have little time, considering the number of pending books here, but we’ll see. It’s probably been 35 years since I read Gatsby.
If I were writing a guide like THE ART OF TIME IN FICTION, I’d have to recommend readers in my Introduction to read THE GREAT GATSBY, HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, and whatever other references I was going to use before they started reading my book, Rick. Otherwise, my analysis would completely spoil those works for someone who hasn’t read them.
Lemme guess–Ms. Silber’s book gives Proust a shout-out.
Up through last year, my library system allowed patrons to inter-library-loan about 200 items a year. What with the library’s budget problems, these days that number has dropped to 30.
Very astute, Drongo! Yes, Joan Silber does refer to Proust’s IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME. She uses the famous example of Proust describing himself turning in bed for 30 pages! Fortunately, my library system allows unlimited inter-library loans. But they charge 25 cents per book–a trivial amount.
Here, it’s one at a time, for 50 cents.
Our library doesn’t have them after all but I will see if they can get a loan. Or go to Ann Arbor.
I ended up ordering three of these. You are a bad influence, George Kelley.
I’m just trying to stimulate the economy, Patti! You won’t regret those purchases!
I finished it last night. I enjoyed it, especially the first half, but I’m afraid I wasn’t as enamored with it as you were, George. I didn’t mind the spoilers, I’d read the Fitzgerald books and stories discussed, and though I’ve not read 100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE, I didn’t mind because though it has always sounded interesting to e I know darn well I’ll never read it.
An interesting book, and I’ll pursue a couple of the others in the series, but if I had to give it a grade, it would certainly have been lower than yours. Then again I’m not as literate, analytical or intelligent as you are. I’m just a guy who enjoys reading a fun story…
THE ART OF TIME IN FICTION is head-and-shoulders above similar books, Rick. I’m eager to check out some of the other books in the series. You have to admit, the book was short and sweet.
Yes it was, and interesting, but I liked what she did in the first half better than what came later. I’m looking into getting another in the series from the library.
I also read THE ART OF SYNTAX but was disappointed that it only dealt with poetry, Rick.
I now have Syntax, Time, Attention and Subtext. I’ll get to the three I haven’t read soon.
I’m having a hard time finding The Art of the Ending by Amy Bloom, The Art of Intimacy in Fiction by Stacey D’Erasmo, and The Art of the Voice by ZZ Packer. Have they been published yet?
You might want to contact GRAYWOLF PRESS, Paula. They’re publishing the series. So far, the titles you’re looking for haven’t shown up on AMAZON.