'Should find a place on every novel-lover's shelf. The only novel Wood has published is called The Book Against God and his criticism suggests that. Playful and profound, it incisively sums up two decades of bold, often controversial, and now classic critical work, and will be enlightening to writers, readers, and anyone interested in what happens on the page. The old manipulative narrator in the sky is a marginal presence throughout How Fiction Works. Wood ranges widely, from Homer to Beatrix Potter, from the Bible to John Le Carre, and his book is both a study of the techniques of fiction-making and an alternative history of the novel. In his first full-length book of criticism, one of the most prominent critics of our time takes the machinery of story-telling apart to ask a series of fundamental questions.

Forster's Aspects of the Novel and Milan Kundera's The Art of the Novel, How Fiction Works is a study of the main elements of fiction, such as narrative, detail, characterization, dialogue, realism, and style. The audacious title of James Wood's How Fiction Works begs for objections, or it would if the literary critic and novelist weren't so persistently, humbly persuasive in explaining his take on how. Why do most endings of novels disappoint? In its letters about family, it feels like a discreet but revelatory home movie. What do we mean when we say we 'know' a fictional character? HOW FICTION WORKS by James Wood writer during a period of impressive achievement, letting readers in on the way he thought and felt about a range of subjects important to his work. literary critic we have' (New York Review of Books) in this new revised 10th anniversary edition. James Woods How Fiction Works is a scintillating study of the magic of fiction-an analysis of its main elements and a celebration of its lasting power. Click here to purchase from Rakuten Kobo Rediscover this deep, practical anatomy of the novel from 'the strongest.

How Fiction Works by James Wood