Reading Like a Writer

I've been hitting "Reading Like a Writer" pretty hard these last two days. I am on page 168. Francine Prose's eloquent writing is a testimony to her generous artistic gift. The book is more like a massive lecture on reading closely. She goes to great lengths analyzing long passages of dialogue, as well as specific sentences and paragraph structure in fiction. Her examples are broad and reflect an ample stable of literary heavyweights. The only one thing that I found a little off putting was her inclusion of one Henry Green, an author who no doubt has an incredible handle on dialogue. The problem is that the examples from Green's novel, "Loving" are way too long and while Prose does a good job of detailing the passages, the reader might lose interest half-way through. Other than that, this is an interesting reading for anyone who wishes to learn to read like a writer. Who needs that MFA program after all?

I am also happy to announce my inclusion of a book I got in Japan this past summer, "Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words" to my 2007 reading list. I got this book one day I went out with my brother-in-law and I was looking for something to take back home as I usually do when I visit Japan. Jay Rubin has been Murakami's translator for years and as a critic may have some interesting things to say. He confesses right away that he is a fan of Murakami's writing, so with that out of the way we might know what the book has to offer to Murakami lovers like myself. I probably won't be getting to read the book until the late spring, but until then keep checking the blog because I am reading "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" in the next few weeks.