All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost

All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost is not a book lost in a title's paradox. It is the opening salvo in a war of letters - a book that needed to be penned, asking the questions about what makes a writer write, can art be taught and what is the standard by which we call a written work good? Yes, it may......more

I had an interesting experience reading this book. In the beginning I had doubts, as it seemed to be set up as a modern romance, and I wasn't sure if there would be anything else to the story. But that was just part one. Even in the beginning, the way Chang uses words caught me off guard at times. W......more

Chang's writing is lucid and gorgeous, full of the small details of human interaction that make writers like William Maxwell and Flannery O'Connor so intriguing. The story centers on a poet named Roman who becomes absorbed in a passionate relationship with his writing instructor, Miranda, a woman wh......more

Chang set herself a delicate task in this short novel - to make us care considerably about the angst of a poet who, for all his alleged talent and commitment, is a shit. Her characters were all a bit too retentive for my tastes; their emotional lives are an abject series of abortions and amputations......more

Elegant, poignant, restrained. I have what I suspect is an obnoxious mild distaste for writers from writing programs - MFA or Iowa Writers Workshop, my mild distaste makes no distinction. It's not that I don't think writing is a craft, or that it can be taught, or that it's worthy of study. It's jus......more