Wonderlands : essays on the life of literature Cover Image

Book

Wonderlands : essays on the life of literature

Baxter, Charles 1947- (author.).

Summary: "Charles Baxter's new collection of essays, Wonderlands, joins his other works of nonfiction, Burning Down the House and The Art of Subtext. In the mold of those books, Baxter shares years of wisdom and reflection on what makes fiction work, including essays that were first given as craft talks at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. The essays here range from brilliant thinking on the nature of wonderlands in the fiction of Haruki Murakami and other fabulist writers, to how request moments function in a story. Baxter is equally at home tackling a thorny matter such as charisma (which intersects with political figures like the disastrous forty-fifth US president) as he is bringing new interest to subjects such as list-making in fiction. Amid these craft essays, an interlude of two personal essays-the story of a horrifying car crash and an introspective "letter to a young poet"-add to the intimate nature of the book. The final essay reflects on a lifetime of writing, and closes with a memorable image of Baxter as a boy, waiting at the window for a parent who never arrives and filling that absence with stories. Wonderlands will stand alongside Baxter's prior work as an insightful and lasting work of criticism"--

Record details

ISBN: 9781644450918
ISBN: 1644450917
ISBN: 9781644451793
ISBN: 1644451794
Physical Description: print
x, 252 pages ; 21 cm
Publisher: Minneapolis, Minnesota : Graywolf Press, [2022]
Copyright: ©2022

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:

Preface -- The request moment, or "There's something I want you to do" -- Inventories and undoings -- Things about to disappear: the writer as curator -- Captain happen: some notes on narrative urgency -- Lush life -- Two interludes -- What happens in hell -- All the dark nights : a letter -- Charisma and fictional authority: nine fragments toward an essay -- Wonderlands -- Toxic narratives, and the bad workshop -- On the plausibility of dreams -- Notes on the dramatic image: an essay in six parts.