Dan CroweBesprekingen

Several modern day writers answer the question, if you could go back in time and talk to any famous writer, who would it be? by imagining how such interviews would go.

Some are straight-forward, some are really very clever, like the Samuel Johnson/Boswell interview imagined by David Mitchell, or Rebecca Miller's take on how an interview would go with the Marquis de Sade. Some of them aren't even authors; Douglas Coupland interviews Andy Warhol, who he imagines finds heaven very dull.

I bought this because I saw Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the list and he's just about the only author I'd travel back in time to talk to, if I could. Ian Rankin did the honours, but I was rather disappointed with his efforts, to be frank. Very little came out of the exercise except perhaps a wicked hangover for Rankin if he was lucky, a court-ordered psych eval if he wasn't (fictitiously speaking, of course).

The weirdest by far was Joyce Carol Oates' disturbing and intensive extended grilling of Robert Frost. I think it's fair to say, fictional imaginings or not, she does not like Robert Frost! At the end of it, she is careful to remind readers it's a work of fiction, "though based opon (limited, selected) historical research", and then points the reader in the direction of Meyer's biography of Frost. I'm betting there's a story to tell there somewhere.

It's an amusing collection of what-ifs, some of which, like with all such things, are better than others.½

Beautifully laid out and designed with inspiring and motivating words from a diversity of Authors.would like to own for reference one day.

I loved the idea behind this book, but I wish there were a few more mainstream authors included.

Nothing to write home about. A coffee-table size book with not a lot in it. Some pretty pictures. The less better said.

This is the story of a small community in Carter County, Tennessee, a remote settlement in the Southern Appalachians. The community includes family names like Estep, Crowe, Carden, Nave, Curtis, Campbell, and Fortner. These are family names that go back in the area to the time of the American Revolution, and many are still found in the area today.

At first glance, I didn't like this book: it looked like a coffee-table book — cool design, but no substance, I thought. I was wrong.

It's an anthology of very short statements from over sixty authors on how they write — specifically on the wierd habits or objects that have become an essential part of their process. Johathan Lethem's list of names, Jay McInerney's axe artifact, Lionel Shriver's toy Clippity, A.S. Byatt's "Antonia Writing Time!" notice, Jonathan Franzen's old and ugly office chair, Claire Messud's graph paper pad and fine .005 felt-tip pens ...

I came away with a fuller understanding that the process of writing is magical, that for many writers, it requires some sort of incantation, totem or ritual.

Yes, it's another art book, but this one has more words in it!

How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors arose from a simple idea. Editor Dan Crowe sent letters to a bunch of writers asking them if they have some kind of talisman or good luck charm than helps them to work. If you do, he asked them, could you send it to me? Or at least a picture of it?

Many replied, including such luminaries as Nicholson Baker (he digs earplugs), Anthony Bourdain (cigarettes), Arthur Bradford (his dogs), Douglas Coupland (chocolate), and Alain de Botton (a large desk). They wrote little essays, which are accompanied by photos of the enchanted objects. Writers are strange and fetishistic. They don't quite know how they accomplish the things they do, and so they invest objects with mystical powers. It's a harmless kind of mysticism, I suppose...and makes for a handsome book, beautifully done (as Rizzoli books tend to be).

In case you're wondering, my writing fetishes change over time...there are years in which I need purple pens, and then there are days when only a typewriter will do. All this fetishism is usually just a way to stall before getting down to work.