Meander, Spiral, Explode, Jane Alison
Meander, Spiral, Explode, Jane Alison
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Meander, Spiral, Explode
Design and Pattern in Narrative

Author: Jane Alison

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Unabridged: 5 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/16/2019

Synopsis

“Doctors don’t imitate Galen. Why should writers follow Aristotle? Jane Alison in her fresh, original book about narrative is our new Aristotle.” ―Edmund White, author of The Unpunished Vice: A Life of ReadingAs Jane Alison writes in the introduction to her insightful and appealing book about the craft of writing: “For centuries there’s been one path through fiction we’re most likely to travel―one we’re actually told to follow―and that’s the dramatic arc: a situation arises, grows tense, reaches a peak, subsides…But something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculo-sexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Why not draw on them, too?”W. G. Sebald’s Emigrants was the first novel to show Alison how forward momentum can be created by way of pattern, rather than the traditional arc―or, in nature, wave. Other writers of nonlinear prose considered in her “museum of specimens” include Nicholson Baker, Anne Carson, Marguerite Duras, Gabriel García Márquez, Jamaica Kincaid, Clarice Lispector, Susan Minot, David Mitchell, Caryl Phillips, and Mary Robison.Meander, Spiral, Explode is a singular and brilliant elucidation of literary strategies that also brings high spirits and wit to its original conclusions. It is a liberating manifesto that says, Let’s leave the outdated modes behind and, in thinking of new modes, bring feeling back to experimentation. It will appeal to serious readers and writers alike.

About Jane Alison

Jane Alison is the author of a memoir, The Sisters Antipodes, and four novels―The Love-Artist, The Marriage of the Sea, Natives and Exotics, and Nine Island―and is also the translator of Ovid’s stories of sexual transformation, Change Me. She is professor of creative writing at the University of Virginia and lives in Charlottesville. Find out more at www.JaneAlisonAuthor.com.

About Bernadette Dunne

Bernadette Dunne has been honored to narrate the work of some of the finest fiction and nonfiction writers of our time, including Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates, and Sandra Day O'Connor. The winner of more than a dozen Earphones Awards and a three-time Audie Award nominee, she has voiced countless bestsellers, including Memoirs of a Geisha, The Devil Wears Prada, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She studied at The Royal National Theater and lives in New York.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Adam

Interesting book length study of shapes in literature- as interesting for readers as writers (which is not always true of craft works), with insightful looks at structures other than Freytag’s trusty old triangle. Alison is an excellent writer, and the glimmers of her personality and humor kept me r......more

Goodreads review by Matthew Ted

169th book of 2020. This was recommended to me by a good friend I have met on my MA course, J., who is considerably older than me, but we have a good relationship all the same. In fact, my entire group on the MA was made up of entirely middle-aged women, which they were apologetic about, but I didn’t......more

Goodreads review by Julie

Jane Alison's inventive and insightful exploration of non-traditional ways to expand story narrative can be appreciated by readers and writers alike. I was drawn to it as a craft resource, wanting to juice my writer's brain at the start of a new year, but soon realized I was enjoying it at least as......more

Quotes

“Alison’s close readings can be exhilarating…[and] Alison’s prose is potent and lush, her enthusiasm infectious.” New Yorker

“You don’t have to be a professional writer to enjoy novelist Jane Alison’s brilliant new craft guide.” Chicago Tribune

“Alison’s book is like a cold shower to ward off the standard narrative arc and rewire our mental circuitry to see the patterns of nature in the structure of novels.” Chicago Review of Books

“The best work of literary criticism I’ve read so far this year.” Literary Hub

“A book on the craft of writing that is also fun to read…She offers writers the freedom to explore but with enough guidance to thrive.” Vulture

“Who knew literary criticism could be so much fun?” Shelf Awareness

“Her fascinating new book…looks at the ways in which…writing can shine when not on a typical linear path, when it is allowed instead to spiral and spring forward and back, fold in on itself or unravel in infinite directions, all of which feel new and exciting.” Nylon

“In her boundlessly inventive look at narrative form…Alison would have readers conceive of other dramatic shapes…including waves in Philip Roth’s Goodbye, Columbus; meandering paths, like rivers or snail trails, that allow the reader to ‘wander a bit, look about, pause’…It would do a disservice to this work to pigeonhole it as ‘literary criticism;' the study is filled with clarity and wit, underlain with formidable erudition.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Her observations of the sensory aspects of literature are indulgent and delectable and sure to elevate the experience of readers and writers alike.” Booklist

“For readers interested in literary theory, Alison does a great job making it palatable.” Kirkus Reviews

Awards

  • Chicago Review of Books Pick
  • Nylon Magazine Pick
  • Vulture.com Pick
  • Publishers Weekly Best Book
  • Atlantic Best Book
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