This didn't excite me as much as the other three volumes in the Writer's Craft series. Nothing in the lectures by Robert Stone, Isabel Allende, Charles McCarry or Marge Piercy made me want to go on to read what they have written; in a couple of cases (not naming names), it made me fairly sure I wouldn't. Perhaps the topic encouraged less insight into the craft of writing. In its place, sentiments that might fit better on a picket line sign.
Then again, there was Gore Vidal. His essay was well-constructed, entertaining, scurrilous and informative, just like the best of his writing. I read the essay, then, before the evening was over, read it out loud to my wife. That essay alone saved the book for me. ( )