Trigger Warnings: mentions of the Holocaust, stereotyping/ableism(?)
As someone who enjoys reading books on the writing craft and authors’ journeys, this book was highly recommended to me as one of the best books for writers to read.
Unfortunately, I ended up DNFing it around a quarter way through. Since the majority of things I have heard about this book have been overwhelmingly positive, I decided to share my thoughts.
I know the book was written in the 90s, so I went into it knowing that there may be some outdated views/language. And there..definitely were.
“You put a piece of paper in the typewriter, or you turn on your computer and bring up the right file, and then you stare at it for an hour or so. You begin rocking, just a little at first, and then like a huge autistic child.”
“Novels ought to have hope; at least American novels ought to have hope. French novels don't need to. We mostly win wars, they lose them. Of course, they did hide more Jews than many other countries and this is a form of winning. Although as my friend Jane points out, if you or I had been there speaking really bad French, they would have turned us in in a hot second-bank on it.”
“At first many of them look strangely alike, just as many people at the Special Olympics bear a familial resemblance to one another.”
I found myself grimacing while reading a lot of the passages in the book, but I will give credit where credit is due—there are definitely some things I found helpful. For example, the concept of taking things ‘bird by bird’, or step by step, when overwhelmed while writing, is great. I also enjoyed the concept of the down draft (or the ‘shitty first draft’).
But unfortunately, I just couldn’t get into this book. I genuinely enjoyed the beginning and learning about her father, but after the first few chapters I found my attention waning, and I had to push myself to continue reading. Although I only got around 25% through and cannot speak past that, most of the advice I read was..fine, I guess? A lot of it felt pretty generic, and I got bored while reading it. Which is a shame, because it was recommended along with Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’, which I really enjoyed.
Overall, although it is a typically highly recommended in writing communities, I can’t say that I would buy this book again if I were given the choice. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I had continued reading it, but between the writing style that I did not find particularly interesting and the outdated/somewhat insulting viewpoints within the book, I currently have no plans on returning to it anytime soon.
by SeptemberGrapes