close reading

Reading Like a Writer

by Heather on November 26, 2009

Recommended Read

Prose, Francine. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. [ISBN-13: 978-0-06-077705-0]

Seeing Francine Prose speak last week galvanized me into finally posting on a book of hers I read last winter. Reading Like a Writer is your chance to sit in Prose’s classroom, where you’ll pull out your magnifying glass to examine  just what it is that makes some of the finest books around really tick. This is a course in close reading that everyone can take.

Close reading is one of my favourite ways into the bones and sinews of a good book. You know the kind of book I mean—the book in which every word, detail, and turn of phrase feels as if it is the only one that could fit, as though it were somehow ordained from the beginning? Yeah, I’m remembering some of those books fondly right now…

But to get back to what I was saying, close reading asks you to slow down and ask yourself why the author chose that particular name for the little girl, why you don’t believe the aunt when she says she’s not drinking anymore, why it was Liberace playing on the radio when the taxi crashed. Each of these details reflects the broader story and each one can uncover another of its secrets.

Now, just as every good sleuth studies the case files of the great detectives who came before them, you can read Prose’s chapters on words, sentences, paragraphs, narration, character, dialogue, details, and gestures to learn how to unravel the mysteries your favourite books may still be concealing from you.

Prose provides a wealth of literary examples to show you what to look for: how Edith’s tepid and ill-fitting replies reveal that she’s just not that into Albert, how a boiled potato in a spreading pool of blood can make a scene more chilling, how the movements of a housefly can reveal the mind of its tormentor. After reading her examples, drawn from so many excellent books and stories, you’ll be glad to find that Prose has included all her sources in a list of “Books to Be Read Immediately.” And when you’re done this book, if you’re like me, you’ll be tempted to head back to all your favourite reads with an eye for what’s there that you haven’t yet seen.

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The Writer's Room with Francine Prose

by Heather on November 19, 2009

I read Francine Prose‘s  Reading like a Writer last winter on my pre-dawn morning commutes. And ever since, it has been on my list of books to share with you here on the Word Blog. That post will come soon—next week, in fact—but today’s post is about her appearance last night at the Toronto Public Library as part of  The Writer’s Room.

First of all, let me say that Prose’s body of work is impressively varied and that she’s prolific. I’ll be featuring her book on writing and close reading next week because this is, after all, a blog about words, but I encourage you to seek out her works of fiction, young adult fiction, children’s fiction and nonfiction, as well.

Ian Brown sat opposite Prose for last night’s interview and asked about many aspects of her work and her practice of writing. I was pleased to learn that in her classes, as in Reading Like a Writer, Prose teaches close reading of literature. She and her students ask “why this sentence, this turn of phrase, this word?” Courses that teach students to ask how these small elements affect and reflect the narrative as a whole—that ask students to slow down in their reading and really analyse the work for the multiple valences of the words within it—are rare. I had the good fortune to take a few literature courses that focused on this kind of close reading, and I’m grateful that I was taught not just how to write and argue, but how to read, as well.

Prose’s most recent book, Anne Frank, considers Anne Frank’s famous diary not just as a historical document but as a work of literature in its own right. Her description last night of Frank’s beautiful writing, deftly managed cast of characters and her precocious awareness and observance of her social and political environment as a very young woman has inspired me to read the diary again. And, naturally, once I’ve done that I’ll be checking out Prose’s Anne Frank.

I won’t go in to too much depth about Prose’s other titles  here, except to say that she’s a New York Times bestselling author, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and has written about Caravaggio, muses, breasts, gluttony, and of course the lives of imaginary people. You’re sure to find something you’ll enjoy.

You can also hear an interview with Francine Prose that aired today on CBC’s Q by following this link. http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/qpodcast_20091119_23327.mp3 (the interview begins at 14:40).

And you’ll be able to watch a video recording of last night’s talk at the Toronto Public Library’s website soon. I’ll update this post with the link once the video is available.

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