Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Spooky Art : Some Thoughts on Writing by Norman Mailer ISBN: 0-394-53648-7 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 21 January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.3 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Mike Tyson of Literature Gives Tips on Training
Comment: Mailer does not discuss technique or craft in detail. He offers insights of an inspirational, philosophic nature on writing. He's interesting even when he rambles, and the book is full of aphorisms that are encouraging and incisive. The book is worthwhile. It's the thinking and advice of one of the Twentieth Century's literary masters about his field of expertise. There's also plenty of advice about fields beyond his expertise, but Mailer eventually makes it all relevant to writing and, more important, to living the kind of life he feels necessary to produce great or very good writing. Mailer is like a great coach in this book, inciting the reader to be braver, to work harder, to want more, to cultivate appetite and a certain recklessness that is an antidote to what he calls the "paranoid perfection" imbued by writing programs. I think Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird is a kinder, gentler counterbalance to Stormin' Norman's inspiring hectoring to step up to the plate--in life and in writing--and is also an excellent book on writing. Where Lamott is compassionate, gentle, a chamomile tea-offering, hand-holding tutor, Mailer is a grizzled veteran exhorting us to throw ourselves into the mix, to take chances, to aspire to more than we may ever achieve. Good advice from someone who's lived it, and produced some of the most influential writing of the last century.
Rating: 4
Summary: Still One of Our Best
Comment: Like Bill Clinton, Mailer is admired and despised by great numbers in this country. There is no question that at least a few of his books will survive (or ultimately be revived) as long as there is American literature. The only question is which ones? Armies Of The Night? The Executioner's Song? Barbary Shore? Marilyn? The Naked and The Dead? The Presidential Papers?
The Spooky Art is a provocative book for young writers under 25 or older readers who are just warming to the thought of possibly writing a novel. I would recommend reading Mailer's Advertisements For Myself first. While this new volume reflects the author's long and distinguished career and is almost always engaging, his earlier Advertisements is more in-depth. For example, his account of writing the many drafts of The Deer Park is fascinating and remarkable because of its youthful candor.
The Spooky Art is a continuation of Mailer's long exploration of the many themes that he has found interesting since the post World War Two period. It certainly can stand alone, but I found that the excerpts had the effect of making me want to go back and take another look at his earlier work.
Rating: 4
Summary: A course on being a writer
Comment: This is not so much a book on writing as it is in being a writer. Through a series of essays, interviews and other texts, Mailer reflects on his experiences. Mailer's life is like no other writer's, so it's hard to imagine that this will help budding authors, but there is something reassuring about his questioning the quality of some of his works, his sudden rise to fame after the Naked and the Dead became a bestseller.
You won't get much concrete advice on writing, but it's a wonderful ride, reading these interesting words by one of America's greatest wordsmiths.
 |
Title: Why Are We at War? by NORMAN MAILER ISBN: 0812971116 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: 08 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
 |
Title: Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from The New York Times by John Darnton, Will Shortz ISBN: 0805070850 Publisher: Times Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: The Naked and the Dead : 50th Anniversary Edition by Norman Mailer ISBN: 0312265050 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 05 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
 |
Title: Harlot's Ghost by Norman Mailer ISBN: 0394588320 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 02 October, 1991 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
 |
Title: On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner, Raymond Carver ISBN: 0393320030 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
