| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Maps and Legends for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Praise for Michael Chabon:
‘Poignant, affecting, witty, wrenching, a terrific writer.' Washington Post
‘The natural exuberance and extravagance of Chabon’s writing is matched by dazzling wit.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘His talent is undisputable. Chabon’s novels are warm, witty, a little whimsical, always beautifully written. He is that rare and precious beast: a literary writer with crossover appeal…’GQ
‘Chabon is a language magician, turning everything into something else just for the delight of playing tricks with words…Chabon's ornate prose makes (Raymond) Chandler's fruity observations of the world look quite plain…He writes like a dream’ Guardian
'He is the most wonderful vaudeville performer.' Philip Hensher, in the Spectator ‘Books of the Year’
Product Description
A collection of essays on books and why they matter, by the Pulitzer-award winning writer of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and The Yiddish Policeman’s Union.
Michael Chabon's sparkling book of nonfiction is a love song in 16 parts - a series of linked essays in praise of reading and writing, with subjects running from ghost stories to comic books, Sherlock Holmes to Cormac McCarthy. Throughout, Chabon energetically argues for a return to the thrilling, chilling origins of storytelling, rejecting the false walls around 'serious' literature in favor of a wide-ranging affection. His own fiction, meanwhile, is explored from the perspective of personal history: post-collegiate desperation sparks his debut, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; procrastination and doubt reveal the way toward Wonder Boys; a love of comics and a basement golem combine to create the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; and an enigmatic Yiddish phrasebook unfurls into The Yiddish Policeman's Union.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Although I read quite a lot, I've never been that interested in reading about writers or writing. I usually don't care too much about the person behind the words, and the more I learn about the process of getting those words into my hands, the less power the writing tends to have over me. That said, Michael Chabon could write the phonebook and I'd probably check it out -- his command of prose and genre are such that he could probably craft a pretty intriguing story out of the yellow pages. So, when I saw the stunningly beautiful cover of this collection of essays, I picked it up and brought it home, completely unconcerned with the contents. The essays (many of which appeared previously in such publications as The New York Review of Books, McSweeney's, Civilization, and Architectural Digest) fall into a few broad and sometimes overlapping categories: reviews/appreciations, in defense of genre, and influences his own work. In the first category are eloquent pieces on Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, Ben Katchor's graphic novel Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer, Howard Chaykin's comic American Flagg, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, M.R. James' ghost stories, D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths, and comics legend Will Eisner. Actually, that list gives one a pretty good sense of just why Chabon has been so gung-ho about championing genre literature, as he does in several essays here. I've always agreed with his belief that genre writers tend to be critically marginalized, so none of his arguments were particularly fresh to me. However, for someone who's never really thought about it, they're probably the most articulate defense of genre available. Some may find his tone on this subject a little strident for their taste, but it never really rubbed me the wrong way (although, again, I agree with him). Finally, the essays about the genesis of his own books are excellent -- although probably better appreciated once you've read the books themselves. On the whole, the book is best for existing fans of Chabon, although most avid readers will discover individual essays that appeal to them.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Wonderful essays in this book on M.R.James, Cormac McCarthy, Arthur Conan Doyle, Philip Pullman, Will Eisner and others are so enthusiastic and insightful that they have made me want to immediately find their works and devour them. Chabon has very varied tastes and this is a wide ranging book which thankfully does not confine comic books,graphic novels, science fiction, fantasy and detective fiction to a narrow-minded ghetto. Towards the end the essays get more autobiographical and will be of particular interest to readers of Chabon's novels. As ever, Chabon demonstrates what an elegant, thoughtful and imaginative writer he is.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Sixteen essays on the subject of writing and the nature of the writer may not seem an enticing prospect, and it's true that some of these essays have subjects that wouldn't necessarily appeal to a wide readership. Others, however, are sparkling bright with ideas and insights, especially if you are not solely a reader/writer of mainstream fiction. Chabon is uncompromisingly on the side of writing as entertainment. Not as passive enjoyment but as speculative, adventurous, experience. He requires us to see science fiction - and all speculative writing, whether it is written by Nabakov (Ada, or, Ardor) or by Asimov, as equally legitimate in terms of its literary value. As he says, the present situation is moribund: "For even the finest writer of horror or sf or detective fiction, the bookstore, to paraphrase the LA funk band War, is a ghetto."
Much of what Chabon covers in this book is argument for a loosening of the restrictive boundaries between genres. He would like to invoke the notion of playfulness. Why must we always be bound by the marketing world into a rigid distinction of genre? He also writes entertainingly in this collection about Arthur Conan Doyle, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, M R James, and on the inception and concepts germaine to his own novels.
To this end his final piece in this collection one might well designate as his central argument in process. It is a dazzling piece of fiction entitled Golems I Have Known and is subtitled, A Trickster's Memoir. There is some excellent writing in this collection and this final essay is wholly delightful from beginning to end.
Much of what Chabon covers in this book is argument for a loosening of the restrictive boundaries between genres. He would like to invoke the notion of playfulness. Why must we always be bound by the marketing world into a rigid distinction of genre? He also writes entertainingly in this collection about Arthur Conan Doyle, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, M R James, and on the inception and concepts germaine to his own novels.
To this end his final piece in this collection one might well designate as his central argument in process. It is a dazzling piece of fiction entitled Golems I Have Known and is subtitled, A Trickster's Memoir. There is some excellent writing in this collection and this final essay is wholly delightful from beginning to end.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
