Frederick Busch is the author of six story collections and twelve novels, most recently The Night Inspector. He has been honored for his fiction by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is a recipient of the PEN/Malamud Prize for achievement in the short story. The Fairchild Professor of Literature at Colgate University, he lives in upstate New York.
"Read this book if you are a beginning writer who wants the
assurance that others, too, have written, submitted, and been
rejected over and over again. Read it if you are an established
writer and want to see the continuing doubt and despair of those
who have produced great books."
--The New York Times Book Review
"Animated ruminations on the risks and rewards of writing. . . . By
conveying with passion and insight why a literary work moves him,
Busch excites the reader to read or reread books that have long
gone stale in our imaginations. Writing and reading are reunited by
an author who shows himself to be a sharp reader, too."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Few literary aficionados are better qualified than Busch to write
about the writing life. . . . Busch knows fiction inside and out,
both as a perceptive reader and a versatile writer, and he forges a
powerful philosophy of literature over the course of sixteen
vibrant essays."
--Booklist
"Think of a more cerebral version of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and
you'll have some notion of this valuable hybrid, which combines
heartfelt memoir with an ardent love of literature."
--Publishers Weekly
A New York Times Notable Book
Busch loves books, a fact that is evident almost immediately in this collection of essays. As a distinguished literary critic and a novelist whose works include Girls (LJ 2/1/97) and The Children in the Woods (LJ 11/1/93), he has made reading and writing the center of his life. Some of these essays are intensely personal, telling about himself and his father, while others focus on such writers as Melville, Hemingway, Dickens, and Kafka. The essays emphasize the connection of literature to life and the moral direction literature provides. Busch ignores the post-structuralists in his criticism, instead approaching the classics with near reverence and encouraging readers to look at them again. This departure from current critical theory is refreshing. Busch's writing, full of energy and passion, provides a positive model for those who aspire to the writing life. Recommended for public and academic libraries.ÄNancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
"Read this book if you are a beginning writer who wants the
assurance that others, too, have written, submitted, and been
rejected over and over again. Read it if you are an established
writer and want to see the continuing doubt and despair of those
who have produced great books."
--The New York Times Book Review
"Animated ruminations on the risks and rewards of writing. . . . By
conveying with passion and insight why a literary work moves him,
Busch excites the reader to read or reread books that have long
gone stale in our imaginations. Writing and reading are reunited by
an author who shows himself to be a sharp reader, too."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Few literary aficionados are better qualified than Busch to write
about the writing life. . . . Busch knows fiction inside and out,
both as a perceptive reader and a versatile writer, and he forges a
powerful philosophy of literature over the course of sixteen
vibrant essays."
--Booklist
"Think of a more cerebral version of Anne Lamott's Bird by
Bird and you'll have some notion of this valuable hybrid, which
combines heartfelt memoir with an ardent love of literature."
--Publishers Weekly
A New York Times Notable Book
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