The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative
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List Price: $14.00 $11.20 $ 2.80 ( 20% ) Farrar, Straus and Giroux Vivian Gornick
Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 820.9492EAN: 9780374528584ISBN: 0374528586Label: Farrar, Straus and GirouxManufacturer: Farrar, Straus and GirouxNumber Of Items: 1Number Of Pages: 184Publication Date: 2002-10-11Publisher: Farrar, Straus and GirouxStudio: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Editorial Reviews: A guide to the art of personal writing, by the author of Fierce Attachments and The End of the Novel of Love All narrative writing must pull from the raw material of life a tale that will shape experience, transform event, deliver a bit of wisdom. In a story or a novel the "I" who tells this tale can be, and often is, an unreliable narrator but in nonfiction the reader must always be persuaded that the narrator is speaking truth.How does one pull from one's own boring, agitated self the truth-speaker who will tell the story a personal narrative needs to tell? That is the question The Situation and the Story asks--and answers. Taking us on a reading tour of some of the best memoirs and essays of the past hundred years, Gornick traces the changing idea of self that has dominated the century, and demonstrates the enduring truth-speaker to be found in the work of writers as diverse as Edmund Gosse, Joan Didion, Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, or Marguerite Duras.This book, which grew out of fifteen years teaching in MFA programs, is itself a model of the lucid inteligence that has made Gornick one of our most admired writers of ninfiction. In it, she teaches us to write by teaching us how to read: how to recognize truth when we hear it in the writing of others and in our own.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Now THIS is a classroom in the BEST sense of the wordComment: I thought I'd read 'The Best' works out there on writing, especially a Memoir, but this surpasses all so far since she gives a very CLEAR analysis of using 'your voice' so that you "intrigue, not bore" the reader... making the reader believe and trust in your story and guiding them to a conclusion. I like being offered examples to match my work up against, not unlike when you in a writing workshop.Customer Rating: Summary: Made me want to get back to writingComment: Gornick manages to analyze exactly what makes a personal essay successful without sounding didactic or sentimental. I'm not surprised, as she is a terrific writer herself. She uses examples of pieces and excerpts from well-known and not-so-well known writers. For anyone who has written creative non-fiction and hasn't always known what to do to improve their work, Gornick offers an unusual way of looking at things, an interesting combination of intuitive and analytical. If you are new to writing, she offers suggestions on how to read other writers, and what to look for. I would add this to "Bird by Bird," by Anne Lamott, as excellent and inspiring books for writers.Customer Rating: Summary: write it right- the Gornick wayComment: The Situation and the Story although easy to follow is a tough read. Gornick's book tells how to read memoirs as well as how to write them. She strives for the highest standards and lays great responsiblity on the wrier's shoulders. Beyond just relating a good story that happens to be true, Gornick expects the writer to impart wisdomto the reader gained by the writerfrom the act of writing the memoir. If the writer didn't gain wisdom, t she probably shouldn't write the memoir.
Customer Rating: Summary: Book was not what I thought it would beComment: No fault of amazon or author.Customer Rating: Summary: sylvia winnerComment: Vivian Gornick never disappoints me. Her intellegence and insights abound and this is a particularly stimulating and revealing book.
