The Questions That Matter Most: Reading, Writing, and the Exercise of Freedom
Aug 2023 · Open Road Media
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252
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About this ebook
"Clear, vibrant" essays on reading and writing by the Pulitzer Prize–winning, New York Times–bestselling author: "A reader feels smarter just taking it in" ( The Boston Globe).
From the author of A Dangerous Business, A Thousand Acres, and Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel, this volume "gathers essays (and two stories) composed with wit, enthusiasm, expertise, and candor" ( Booklist).
Long acclaimed as a preeminent American novelist, Jane Smiley is also an unparalleled observer of the craft of writing. In this book, she offers penetrating essays on some of the aesthetic and cultural issues that mark any serious engagement with reading and writing. After a personal introduction tracing Smiley's migration from Iowa to California, she reflects on her findings in the literature of the Golden State, whose writers have for decades litigated the West's contested legacies of racism, class conflict, and sexual politics through their work. With meticulous attention, she also dives beneath surface-level interpretations of authors like Marguerite de Navarre, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Willa Cather, Franz Kafka, Halldór Laxness, and Jessica Mitford. Throughout, Smiley seeks to think harder, and with more clarity and nuance, about the questions that matter most.
"Valuable . . . Smiley gives educators, readers, and writers much to discuss." — Library Journal (starred review)
"Her literary criticism . . . brims with the same keen observations, inquisitiveness, and humor as her novels. . . . Fleet-footed and smart, this delights." — Publishers Weekly
From the author of A Dangerous Business, A Thousand Acres, and Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel, this volume "gathers essays (and two stories) composed with wit, enthusiasm, expertise, and candor" ( Booklist).
Long acclaimed as a preeminent American novelist, Jane Smiley is also an unparalleled observer of the craft of writing. In this book, she offers penetrating essays on some of the aesthetic and cultural issues that mark any serious engagement with reading and writing. After a personal introduction tracing Smiley's migration from Iowa to California, she reflects on her findings in the literature of the Golden State, whose writers have for decades litigated the West's contested legacies of racism, class conflict, and sexual politics through their work. With meticulous attention, she also dives beneath surface-level interpretations of authors like Marguerite de Navarre, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Willa Cather, Franz Kafka, Halldór Laxness, and Jessica Mitford. Throughout, Smiley seeks to think harder, and with more clarity and nuance, about the questions that matter most.
"Valuable . . . Smiley gives educators, readers, and writers much to discuss." — Library Journal (starred review)
"Her literary criticism . . . brims with the same keen observations, inquisitiveness, and humor as her novels. . . . Fleet-footed and smart, this delights." — Publishers Weekly
"Clear, vibrant" essays on reading and writing by the Pulitzer Prize–winning, New York Times–bestselling author: "A reader feels smarter just taking it in" ( The Boston Globe).
From the author of A Dangerous Business, A Thousand Acres, and Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel, this volume "gath...
About the author
Jane Smiley was born in Los Angeles, California on September 26, 1949. She received a B. A. from Vassar College in 1971 and an M.F.A. and a Ph.D from the University of Iowa. From 1981 to 1996, she taught undergraduate and graduate creative writing workshops at Iowa State University. Her books include The Age of Grief, The Greenlanders, Moo, Horse Heaven, Ordinary Love and Good Will, Some Luck, and Early Warning. In 1985, she won an O. Henry Award for her short story Lily, which was published in The Atlantic Monthly. A Thousand Acres received both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
Jane Smiley was born in Los Angeles, California on September 26, 1949. She received a B. A. from Vassar College in 1971 and an M.F.A. and a Ph.D from the University of Iowa. From 1981 to 1996, she taught undergraduate and graduate creative writing workshops at Iowa State University. Her books inc...
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