James Wood, How Fiction Works ****

A better title for How Fiction Works would be something like Aspects of Style. Wood talks enthusiastically about various techniques that differentiate prose stylists from workmanlike writers and modern novelists from their predecessors: the free indirect style, the telling detail, complex character motivation, and realism. He talks about narrative technique, not about plotting.

How Fiction Works mostly eschews the pretentious critical-theory-speak of most modern literary criticism, in favor of clear examples that demonstrate his points. For example, Wood explains the free indirect style by offering alternative versions of the same observation, and illustrates the development of   consciousness in literature by comparing similar characters in the Bible, Macbeth, and Crime and Punishment. He is a master at choosing apropos literary passages. His critical interpretations are always interesting: I'm not a fan of Dostoevsky, but Wood's reading of him clarifies what is good and distinctive about his books.

The book is enjoyable, illuminating, and made me want to read great literature.

Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers *** 1/2

I picked up The Flamethrowers after reading an article at Salon.com entitled, "Rachel Kushner's ambitious new novel scares male critics." Salon's female critic Laura Miller suggests that the book is an attempt at the Great American Novel, and that we're not used to reading anything this bold from a woman writer. James Wood also praised it, despite his being a male critic.

It is indeed an extremely well written book that tackles big themes, especially the never-ending dance between reality and art, authenticity and artifice. It includes some wonderful set pieces on the Bonneville Salt Flats and in Italy. My favorite chapter of all describes a family get-together in an Italian villa at Bellagio: the social dynamics between the characters are well rendered.

On the down side, though, I felt the story lacked any narrative drive, and few of the characters had clear motivations. I read each scene with interest, but never really wondered what was going to happen next.

My experience of reading The Flamethrowers was similar to my experience reading Roberto Bolano's books. Kushner and Bolano are clearly talented, ambitious authors; their characters are artists in international settings; and I admire their work but can't get completely engaged with it. I actually found Kushner more compelling than Bolano (maybe due to her being an American and therefore closer to me in background?).

Timothy Noah, The Great Divergence *** 1/2

I read the Hillman Prize-winning series of articles in Slate that formed the basis of this book. Each article, corresponding roughly to a chapter in the book, examined one possible explanation for the extreme growth in income inequality over the past three decades and found that none of the usual suspects could account for the phenomenon. Not only is it an compelling mystery story, but Noah's analysis delves into most of the hot-button topics of contemporary politics: immigration, globalization, racism, classism, computerization, equal opportunity, and tax policy. He has interesting data and makes insightful points in all of these areas. In the end, Noah's suggestions in the chapter on "What to Do" are mostly the traditional liberal prescriptions.

I found the book to be slightly less compelling than the original Web articles. It sacrifices focused journalistic clarity for a greater depth of data. I sometimes started drowning under the mass of statistics.