![]() ![]() Sebald, Clarice Lispector, and Jamaica Kinkaid, as proof of the many ways that writing can shine when not on a typical linear path, when it is allowed instead to spiral and spring forward and back, fold in on itself or unravel in infinite directions, all of which feel new and exciting." - Kristin Iversen, NYLON, 1 of 15 Great Books to Read This Month Alison encourages an exploration of techniques and styles, offering examples of experimental writing from masters like W.G. "What if everything you know, everything you've been taught, about writing is wrong? Or, if not wrong, precisely, at least restrictive, oriented in only one direction, without much room to get creative and go outside the bounds of what had been done before? This is what Jane Alison explores in her fascinating new book, which looks at the ways in which prescriptive writing has led to sameness and predictability. Anyone who reads stands to appreciate her argument that the primary way most of us are taught that fiction ought to be structured-Freytag's famous triangle-is neither the best nor the only method." - Kathleen Rooney, Chicago Tribune, What to Read This Summer "You don't have to be a professional writer to enjoy novelist Jane Alison's brilliant new craft guide Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative, published by Catapult Press. It would do a disservice to this work to pigeonhole it as 'literary criticism' the study is filled with clarity and wit, underlain with formidable erudition." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) " boundlessly inventive look at narrative form. It is a special kind of literary criticism." - Katy Waldman, The New Yorker ![]() The fecundity of Alison's writing is of a piece with her larger mission: to turn narrative theory into a supersaturated mindfuck of hedonistic extravaganza. Alison's prose is potent and lush, her enthusiasm infectious. One of her more seductive ideas is the notion of possible 'correlations between kinds of stories and certain patterns, ' as when reflective first-person novels adopt the spiral. "Alison's close readings can be exhilarating. Publishers Weekly, One of the Best Nonfiction Books of the YearĪ Big Other Most Anticipated Small Press Book of the Year ![]() "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.Ĭhicago Review of Books, One of the Best Books of the Year So Far It will appeal to serious readers and writers alike. ![]() It is a liberating manifesto that says, Let's leave the outdated modes behind and, in thinking of new modes, bring feeling back to experimentation. Meander, Spiral, Explode is a singular and brilliant elucidation of literary strategies that also brings high spirits and wit to its original conclusions. Other writers of nonlinear prose considered in her "museum of specimens" include Nicholson Baker, Anne Carson, Marguerite Duras, Gabriel García Márquez, Jamaica Kincaid, Clarice Lispector, Susan Minot, David Mitchell, Caryl Phillips, and Mary Robison. Sebald's Emigrants was the first novel to show Alison how forward momentum can be created by way of pattern, rather than the traditional arc- or, in nature, wave. But something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculosexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Alison asserts that the best stories follow patterns in nature, and by defining these new styles she offers writers the freedom to explore but with enough guidance to thrive." -Maris Kreizman, VultureĪs Jane Alison writes in the introduction to her insightful and appealing book about the craft of writing: "For centuries there's been one path through fiction we're most likely to travel- one we're actually told to follow-and that's the dramatic arc: a situation arises, grows tense, reaches a peak, subsides. "How lovely to discover a book on the craft of writing that is also fun to read. One of Poets & Writers' Best Books for Writers ![]()
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