There are few books about writing that I have really found worthwile to return to as a reference. Though I have gleaned a small amount from a number of sources, nothing really compares to John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction and On Becoming A Novelist.

This book is interesting to me though, as Smiley appears to connect the experience of reading with the craft of writing in a unique and thorough manner. I’m hopeful about this one…

Jane Smiley took a break from her own novel-writing to create a guide, an analysis, a companion to the novel as form. After defining and discussing the novel as a form, she provides a few pages on each of 100 novels from Boccaccio’s Decameron through Ian McEwan’s Atonement, discussing them as instruction for the aspiring novel-writer or for a reader interested in how the novel is written.