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Famous Writers I Have Known (2014)

by James Magnuson(Favorite Author)

3.38 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0393240886 (ISBN13: 9780393240887)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

review 1: I almost left this book at the library, but then I thought, I'll bet I would love this, actually. And I did! The author is the director of the James A. Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, and this book is a witty, hilarious send-up of his profession, in general, but most specifically of Michener and J.D. Salinger, who are given different names, of course, but are obviously the two writers central to the story. The narrator is a small-time con man in New York City, who finds it necessary to flee the city as quickly as possible when he finds the body of his recently-murdered partner-in-crime in their hotel room. The narrator bears an uncanny resemblance to what the J.D. Salinger character may well look like (he hasn't been seen in 25 years) and we ar... moree off to the races. At one point, the precious writer wannabes in the MFA program play the "first line of your favorite novel" game, and this book has a pretty great one: "Sometimes writing a sentence can be harder than serving one".
review 2: A witty and enjoyable novel that sends up both high and low literary culture at the same time. The premise, a New York con artist on the lam exploiting his resemblance to a Salingeresque reclusive one-hit-wonder to lay low at a writing workshop while dispensing improvised advise on the art of fiction, is clever, and it allows (I realized halfway through reading) the occasionally clunky or stereotypical turns-of-phrase to perhaps be part of the intended style. Quick and fun. less

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