Reading Like a Writer：A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them

Longbeforetherewerecreative-writingworkshopsanddegrees,howdidaspiringwriterslearntowrite?Byreadingtheworkoftheirpredecessorsandcontemporaries,saysFrancineProse.InReadingLikeaWriter,Proseinvitesyoutositbyhersideandtakeaguidedtourofthetoolsandthetricksofthemasters.Shereadstheworkoftheverybestwriters—Dostoyevsky,Flaubert,Kafka,Austen,Dickens,Woolf,Chekhov—anddiscoverswhytheirworkhasendured.ShetakespleasureinthelongandmagnificentsentencesofPhilipRothandthebreathtakingparagraphsofIsaacBabel;sheisdeeplymovedbythebrilliantcharacterizationinGeorgeEliot'sMiddlemarch.ShelookstoJohnLeCarréforalessoninhowtoadvanceplotthroughdialogue,toFlanneryO'Connorforthecunninguseofthetellingdetail,andtoJamesJoyceandKatherineMansfieldforcleverexamplesofhowtoemploygesturetocreatecharacter.Shecautionsreaderstoslowdownandpayattentiontowords,therawmaterialoutofwhichliteratureiscrafted.Writtenwithpassion,humor,andwisdom,ReadingLikeaWriterwillinspirereaderstoreturntoliteraturewithafresheyeandaneagerheart.