[.ca] Writers on Writing: Collected Essays From The New York Times (ISBN 0805070850)

From Amazon.com:
After 30 years as a journalist, John Darnton decided to try his hand at writing a novel. If he wrote 1,000 words a day, he discovered, he'd have a book in a matter of months. But wouldn't it be nice to learn a few tricks of the trade from other writers as well? Thus was born The New York Times's Monday-morning Writers on Writing series. In embarking on the series, says Darnton, he learned that the writers he most wanted to hear from were not necessarily the same ones who most wanted to hear from him. But there couldn't have been too many who turned him down. The 46 columns collected in Writers on Writing are by the likes of Saul Bellow, Mary Gordon, David Mamet, Annie Proulx, Carol Shields, and Paul West. Though many of them have not much more than the occupation "writer" in common, Darnton says that in one way he found them all to be alike: "They wanted to hear, right away, what you thought of their work." Here, Richard Ford explains why he finds not writing to be a terrific thing. Alice Hoffman describes the effect illness (her own and that of others) has had on her work. Barbara Kingsolver grapples with writing an "unchaste" novel. Louise Erdrich explores the effect a second language, Ojibwe in her case, can have on one's involvement with the first. And Russell Banks learns the hard way that "when you meet a witness to your distant past, your memory tends to improve." The most hilarious piece is Carolyn Chute's "How Can You Create Fiction When Reality Comes to Call?" In it, she describes one day, in which "X-rated stuff happens," the cuckoo clock goes off incessantly, dirty dishes beckon, political cohorts come calling, a dog has a couple of seizures, laundry needs doing, and guests constantly arrive. Once Chute finally does get down to writing, the "n" breaks off the daisy wheel. But at least the phone doesn't ring. "Its bell is broken. It never rings. Thank heavens." --Jane Steinberg

Some very worthy essays here:
Writers on Writing is a mixed bag of essays, edited by journalist John Darnton, that were originally published in the New York Times. The authors of the forty-some pieces that comprise the volume are all celebrated writers (though I confess I was not familiar with all their bylines), a good many of them household names: Kurt Vonnegut and Alice Hoffman and John Updike and Scott Turow and so on. The authors were charged with writing about, well, writing, and they manage to do so, surprisingly enough, without ever stepping on one another's subject matter: each essayist approaches the topic in a manner peculiar to themselves. Some of the essays, those that had the least to do with the task of writing, left me cold: it is a shame that the collection, which is organized alphabetically by author, begins with a particularly weak contribution. But there are far more worthy essays than not in this volume. Among the most interesting of the lot are Kent Haruf's piece on the peculiar way that some writers, including himself, write, and David Leavitt's fascinating reminiscence of his early insistence on order in the unlikeliest of places: "I didn't like it if there were more songs on one side \oof a record\c than the other; the songs had to be at least three minutes long, with a title that appeared in neither the first nor the last line. (If the title appeared in both the first and the last line, I would remove the offending album from my shelf.)" Writing, Leavitt explains, was a means for him to impose order on ordinary life. There is, too, a very amusing piece by Ed McBain on crime writing, and David Mamet writes of the joys of genre fiction, and in particular of Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin series (now a major motion picture!). Readers should find something to like in these pages, and may indeed discover among them a handful of new authors to add to their shelves.

Lacks substance:
Very disappointing. The occassional gem (like Jamaica Kincaid's) brought my review up by one star, but by and large these essays read like tossed-off first drafts. Sure the crafting of each piece was tight--these folks are professionals and the Times is no rag. But they lacked profundity, and why bother writing something that says nothing? More to the point, why read it? I wanted more--insight, substance, something, anything--from these authors. It wasn't here, but I found it in the Washington Post's version: "The Writing Life" edited by Maria Arana. At 400+ pages deep, that one's worth the price and time.

Impressive:
In this fascinating book, forty-six writers talk about what they do in forty-six voices worth listening to -- serious essays, whimsical essays, stories, confessions. The book does not provide biographies, although the basic facts of the lives of many are well known, such as John Updike, David Mamet, Saul Bellow and others. Writers On Writing might be of interest to those who have read Eleanor Wachtel's More Writers and Company, which includes bigraphical data and compelling interviews with about two dozen writers, including several who contributed essays to Writers On Writing: Carol Shields, Alice Walker, E. L. Doctorow, Louise Eldrich, Jane Smiley, and Jamaica Kincaid.

Beautiful Essays on Writing:
"Writers write because they cannot allow the characters that inhabit them to suffocate them," Elie Wisel noted. How true, isn't it? What a wonderful, priceless reflection on the craft of writing. The New York Times produced a beautiful collections of essay on writing. Inviting literary talents (giants really) like Russell Banks, Updike, Alice Walker, Elie Wiesel, Jamaica Kincaid, David Leavitt, Susan Sontag, Saul Bellow and many more. Annie Proulx's essay on collecting books from yard sales is highly inspiring. Same with Bellow's encouragement for us, the society, to discover the magic of literature once more. WRITERS ON WRITING is for anyone who needs inspiration and guide, and for those interested in the art of writing.

A lot of talent under one cover:
This book is exactly what it promised to be: a compilation of the essays that the New York Times runs on Mondays under the headline "Writers on Writing." If you've been following the series you won't find any surprises. It's just nice to have everything in one place in more permanent form than a stack of newspaper clippings. If you don't read the New York Times you'll find a collection of essays loosely themed around writing and whatever the author decides to tie it to, by a wide spectrum of writers including, as a random sampling, Saul Bellow, Barbara Kingsolver, Elie Wiesel and Scott Turow. Chances are you're going to find some names in there that aren't familiar. One could wish the editor had included a brief bio on each writer, or at least a list of their titles. Even so, it's an engaging collection.