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How Literature Saved My Life (2013)

by David Shields(Favorite Author)

3.34 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0307961524 (ISBN13: 9780307961525)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Knopf

review 1: Once again, David Shields tosses a literary grenade across the table, challenging everything we think we know about fiction. (Everything we know is wrong? Are we all bozos on this bus?) A fervent provocateur for a complete re-thinking of how we write and think about books (novels mostly), Shields continues his advocacy of collage - "in which tiny paragraph units work together to project a linear motion." Er, narrative maybe. If this little snippet has you writerly folk shaking your head, sorry. I say read the book - in 10 years we may look back and think, "yeah, now I see." Recommended.
review 2: So, David Shields. What's going on with this guy? Does he even still like to read? Is he depressed? Will he ever stop reminding us how much he likes basketball? Here... more's a bunch of sloppy arguments for "the death of the novel" and "fractured consciousness" and other trendy, cool things the kids are into these days. And supported by so many quotes from other authors this book can only be considered half-written. It's at least as much a commonplace book as it is original work. But, I'm with him on a lot of it. I've also lost the taste for fiction, and I resent how it's overpraised at the expense of non-fiction writing. Who decided fiction is superior to non-fiction? Some fucking heads of creative writing departments? Fuck you and your cultural hegemony, you tenured assholes. Also I'm always entertained by a David Shields non-fiction book, and discover other writers I wouldn't have otherwise through his work. I wish he'd stop being so hard on himself, but this is probably also what makes him fun to read. And I read this book in two days, utterly engrossed on a MAX train at rush hour. So read it and ignore my kvetching. less

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