by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 5, 2009 | craft of writing, details, reviews, stories |
Last Night is a slim volume of ten stories by James Salter. James is his real name. Salter is a pseudonym adopted because he was in the air force when he began to write. He was a fighter pilot who flew with Buzz Aldrin, Ed White and Gus Grissom. In July of 2004,...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Dec 16, 2008 | craft of writing |
Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark Breaking it down, as they say. Taking a closer look. Some of the similes: Ray thinking about Thea: “She was like wedding cake, a thing to dream on.” Thea thinking about an older couple she had seen together: ...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Nov 21, 2008 | craft of writing, memory, reviews, truth |
The Gathering, by Irish writer Anne Enright, won the 2007 Man Booker Prize. I read it in April. In this novel, the narrator describes her family of origin in terms of the labels we acquire, as families and as individuals in a family. “The Hegartys didn’t...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Nov 15, 2008 | craft of writing, details, novels, reading |
Just as Home, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award in Fiction, has been called a companion to Gilead, this post is a companion to yesterday’s. Prompted by comments, I wanted to add that if you enjoyed Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson’s first novel,...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Oct 30, 2008 | craft of writing, Dani Shapiro, details |
Dani Shapiro is one of my all-time favorite writers. She knows how to tell a story–how to slowly release details in order to build tension and lure the reader forward. The first book of hers I read was Family History, published in 2003, but which I did not...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 19, 2008 | craft of writing |
Niagara Falls All Over Again (published in 2001) is a well-crafted novel written by Elizabeth McCracken. In the space of two and a half pages, the author uses several techniques to pull the reader into the story. Early in the novel, the author describes an accident...
