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Product Description
J.M. Coetzee
‘Eloquent essays, rich in anecdote, from the hand of a true and lifelong servant of poetry’
Review
'Eloquent essays, rich in anecdote, from the hand of a true and lifelong servant of poetry' J.M. Coetzee 'An impressive performance by a poet who allows nothing to come between him and the literature he loves. His book should not be neglected by anybody with a serious interest in modern literature and literary criticism' Frank Kermode 'If you want a reminder of what writing is really about, you have only to turn to an elegant little book of essays' Robert McCrum, Observer 'Is there a more charming literary companion than Al Alvarez? To read this book is to feel the shutters of the mind being slowly jemmied apart, an agonising delight ... This is a beautifully presented volume, and a rarity among works of criticism in that it is likely to change your behaviour. Any sane reader will give up buying books for a few months and scamper back, shame-faced but full of excitement, to the riches of his dusty shelves' Spectator
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you are looking at this book you should probably buy it. It's one of those books you don't want to read too quickly. Both because it's densely written and because you want to draw out the pleasure of reading it. It's spare but rich in arresting insights - Alvarez's own and many beautifully apposite quotes. The author's voice gives confidence in his complete grasp of his subject from the first sentence and never falters, while remaining unselfimportant and an engaging read. At one point he quotes I. A. Richards on metre, "...it's effect is not due to our perceiving a pattern in something outside us, but to our becoming patterned ourselves." I loved that and the book is packed with stuff like that. He quotes Coleridge on poetry as something which, "contains in itself the reasons why it is so and not otherwise". Virginia Woolf, "Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can't use the wrong words". (This is from the start of a fascinating quote from Woolf, which goes deep into her justification for this assertion.) It's a really excellent little book. Buy it and read it, become patterned by it.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Alvarez explores voice, not as style, but as something Roth described as 'starting behind the knees and ending somewhere above the head.' Drawing on Freud, he suggests that finding your voice is like something akin to expressing your true adult identity (Jung would have called it 'Self'.) The text also examines the differences between poetry and prose, and is suggestive without being judgmental. A book that can be revisited again and again.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This short book is beautifully written and absorbingly interesting, and will have you looking at authors you might not like with a fresh and more tolerant eye. He talks about writers having a `tone of voice'. He talks too about readers having to learn to listen, and how easy it is to get sucked into `the cult of personality'. He's obviously not happy about `the shift from art to marketing', where what is produced becomes of secondary interest compared to the author's (or artist's) life.
As you read, you find yourself pausing to have a think about what's been said, to ask yourself if you agree or disagree. The author has firm views, but I never felt that he was beating me about the head with them; rather, I was being asked to consider if perhaps he had a point. On balance, I thought he did.
As you read, you find yourself pausing to have a think about what's been said, to ask yourself if you agree or disagree. The author has firm views, but I never felt that he was beating me about the head with them; rather, I was being asked to consider if perhaps he had a point. On balance, I thought he did.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Writer's Voice - can you hear it?
Part of the Norton Lecture series of short books, "The Writer's Voice" explores the stylistics and linguistic content we consider to be "the writer"; on one double page, he... Read more
Published 9 months ago by RR Waller
A Stroll in the Posh Park
This small tract collects together three lectures given by Alvarez in New York in 2002. Although separate lectures, they run together here as continuous chapters, and there would... Read more
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