How Fiction Works, James Wood
How Fiction Works, James Wood
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How Fiction Works

Author: James Wood

Narrator: James Adams

Unabridged: 5 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/21/2009

Synopsis

What makes a story a story? What is style? What's the connection between realism and real life? These are some of the questions James Wood answers in How Fiction Works, the first book-length essay by the preeminent critic of his generation.Raging widely from Homer to David Foster Wallace, from What Maisie Knew to Make Way for Ducklings, Woods takes the reader through the basic elements of the art of fiction, step-by-step. He sums up two decades of insight with wit and concision, resulting in nothing less than a philosophy of the novel, which has won critical acclaim nationwide, from the San Francisco Chronicle to the New York Times Book Review.

About James Wood

James Wood is a staff writer at the New Yorker and a visiting lecturer in English and American literature at Harvard. Previously he taught literature with Saul Bellow at Boston University and, in 1994, served as a judge for the Booker Prize. He is the author of How Fiction Works, several essay collections, and the novel The Book against God.

About James Adams

James Adams is one of the world’s leading authorities on terrorism and intelligence, and for more than twenty-five years he has specialized in national security. He is also the author of fourteen bestselling books on warfare, with a particular emphasis on covert warfare. A former managing editor of the London Sunday Times and CEO of United Press International, he trained as a journalist in England, where he graduated first in the country. Now living in Southern Oregon, he has narrated numerous audiobooks and earned an AudioFile Earphones Award and two coveted Audie Award for best narration.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Paul on July 20, 2024

For 75 pages this was all clang clang clang goes the trolley ding ding ding goes the bell but then it turned a sharp corner and I think I done got throwed off the bus. Ow! As it rattled off without me I was left to think carefully about what I’m doing when I read a novel (aside from avoiding the int......more

Goodreads review by s.penkevich on March 27, 2015

Critics often get a bad reputation, and likely deservingly so. I often reflect on a quote by Macedonio Fernández that a critic knows nothing of what perfect literature is, but only what it is not and, especially while writing on Goodreads, am constantly haunted by Susan Sontag's Against Interpretati......more

Goodreads review by MJ on March 17, 2013

A verymost entertaining and informative book about books and how writers make them from words placed in different orders. Split into handy chapters but written as one lengthy essay with numerical subheadings, Wood teaches us things from Flaubert, James, Joyce, Foster Wallace and other masters and mi......more

Goodreads review by Terence on November 13, 2008

I kind of hate reading books of this sort as they leave me with a heightened awareness of style, character, rhythm, etc. that makes it difficult to read average or sub-par fiction. Of course, the benefit of reading books like this is that I do cultivate a more discriminatory taste so that I read onl......more

Quotes

“Deservedly famous for [his] intellectual dazzle, literary acuteness and moral seriousness…Wood writes like a dream.” New York Times Book Review

“The real question he is addressing in this book is not what makes fiction work, but what makes the best fiction work better than the rest. This is a technical book, a primer of sorts, of interest to the practicing writer but probably most useful and illuminating for the serious reader who enjoys the fictive ride and wants to take a look under the hood…All of this is engagingly presented, and…I recommend it highly.” Washington Post

“How Fiction Works should delight and enlighten practicing novelists, would-be novelists, and all passionate readers of fiction.” Economist

“[Wood proves] that superior criticism not only unifies and interprets a literary culture but has the power to imagine it into being.” Harper’s Magazine

“Arguably the preeminent critic of contemporary English letters, [Wood] accomplishes his mission of asking a critic’s questions and offer[ing] a writer’s answers with panache. This book is destined to be marked up, dog-eared, and cherished.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“James Wood’s commanding discussion of the inner workings of fiction writing is an informative reference…This insightful and extremely thorough work is akin to a college lecture…[James Adams’] masterful grasp of the content makes for a keen accompaniment to the material.” AudioFile

Awards

  • San Francisco Chronicle Best Book
  • Washington Post Best Book
  • Economist Best Book
  • Library Journal Best Book
  • New York Times Book Review Notable Book
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