13 Ways of Looking at the Novel and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Kindle Edition
 
   
Sell Back Your Copy
For a $0.22 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
13 Ways of Looking at the Novel
 
 
Start reading 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

13 Ways of Looking at the Novel [Paperback]

Jane Smiley (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

List Price: $16.95
Price: $12.71 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $4.24 (25%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Only 20 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Tuesday, January 31? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --  
Paperback $12.71  

Book Description

September 12, 2006
Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling novelist Jane Smiley celebrates the novel–and takes us on an exhilarating tour through one hundred of them–in this seductive and immensely rewarding literary tribute.

In her inimitable style–exuberant, candid, opinionated–Smiley explores the power of the novel, looking at its history and variety, its cultural impact, and just how it works its magic. She invites us behind the scenes of novel-writing, sharing her own habits and spilling the secrets of her craft. And she offers priceless advice to aspiring authors. As she works her way through one hundred novels–from classics such as the thousand-year-old Tale of Genji to recent fiction by Zadie Smith and Alice Munro–she infects us anew with the passion for reading that is the governing spirit of this gift to book lovers everywhere.

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them (P.S.) $8.83

13 Ways of Looking at the Novel + Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them (P.S.)


Editorial Reviews

Review

“Engaging. . . . Down-to-earth. . . . Smiley’s unmediated voice–blunt, uncompromising and witty–rings from every page. . . . She inspires wicked delight.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review

“A massive victory. . . . Awfully smart. . . . Always a pleasure.” –The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Provocative. . . . Wise and humane. . . . It reminds readers of the novel why they love their avocation. . . . I most heartily recommend it.” –Marjorie Kehe, The Christian Science Monitor

“Thorough, insightful. . . . Sure to inspire delicious debate and excite interest in undiscovered works. . . . Her critiques are shrewd, artful and unflinching. . . . Thirteen Ways continues to whisper its profundities long after the last page is turned.” –Rocky Mountain News

About the Author

Jane Smiley is the Pulitzer Prize—winning author of more than ten novels as well as four works of nonfiction, including a critically acclaimed biography of Charles Dickens. She is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for her novel A Thousand Acres, and in 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in northern California.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 608 pages
  • Publisher: Anchor (September 12, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1400033187
  • ISBN-13: 978-1400033188
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #167,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Some might enjoy only half of this book, April 12, 2007
By 
This review is from: 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel (Paperback)
The first half of the book is a philosophical/intellectual discussion of different aspects of a novel (point of view, plot, story type, etc) along with some historical consideration of how the "novel" format has developed over time. Smiley seems to get off-track in parts of this section, and I found myself getting bored from time to time as she expounded too much on a chapter's thesis.

The second half of the book is really awesome. A compendium of 101 novels, with a 1-3 page synopsis of why the novel is important. It's a nice reference for choosing a "great" book to read without resorting to a high school curriculum list. Beware, Smiley goes into detail about plot, so there are spoilers in her descriptions of the novels.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars What non-fiction readers should know about the novel, July 17, 2007
By 
This review is from: 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel (Paperback)
I read mostly non-fiction and view novels as overly descriptive pieces for people who believe in storytelling as an Art with a capital A. After reading over 100 pages of this book I realize I've been sitting on a high horse of my own. My opinion of the novel was narrow and simplistic. Smiley makes a place for every sort of novel and author at her table, without negative judgment, and it makes for interesting talk. Her ideas are lively and interesting. She really opened my eyes and could have easily titled the book "Infinite Ways of Looking At the Novel". This book is going to get me back to reading more novels. I never expected to have that reaction to this book. Indeed, I probably started it looking to bolster my low opinion of novelists.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but idiosyncratic, June 11, 2009
This review is from: 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel (Paperback)
In assigning three stars to this book I may be misleading the reader. For those attuned to Jane Smiley's sensibility, this will be a five-star book; for those who are not it will be a one-star book. This is not a study of the novel as form so much as it is what the title infers--ways of looking at the novel. As such it is more personal (some would say idiosyncratic) and, as inferred above, of varying degrees of usefulness.

The book actually attempts to do several things at once: a) explore key aspects of novelistic fiction; b) offer advice on the writing of novelistic fiction; c) record personal experience with regard to the writing of specific novelistic fiction; and d) discuss 100 novels. It is thus, by turns, a scholarly book, a how-to book and a reference book.

The discussions of novelistic fiction are interesting. They are particularly interesting because they are out of the critical mainstream. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since previous scholarship canalizes discussion and, in its way, narrows the imagination. Jane Smiley's reflections, e.g., on the origins of the novel are, as a result, quite different from those of Watt, McKeon, Hunter, Doody, et al. who tell a very different story than the story told here. Most scholars will find Smiley's comments naïve and uninformed though not uninteresting and not without their uses.

The how-to sections of the book are also interesting, though they are not as systematic as one would expect in a how-to book. Aspiring novelists will enjoy Smiley's anecdotes, her encouragement and her wisdom. Nevertheless, they are still likely to need a more consciously hands-on book like Scott Meredith's.

The discussions of the 100 novels are unsystematic. They consist of reflections, not discrete, consistent bodies of information. Thus they make for an engaging `read' but they do not serve the purposes that reference books serve. The remarks are somewhat idiosyncratic and, hence, potentially valuable. At other times they are remarkably naïve. Two small examples: Smiley does not have a developed sense of genre. Thus, she discusses Wuthering Heights and Moby-Dick as novels rather than (as many would) romances. This is fairly basic stuff to the professoriate, Frye 101 if you will. "Tales" are different from "short stories," for example, and lumping the two together leads to problematic conclusions. Second, Smiley has strong views which she does not hesitate to inject into her book. Strong views are fine, but they prove problematic when they distort discourse. In her discussion of Conrad, e.g., she attributes the attitudes of Conrad's narrator to Conrad himself. In the case in question we are not talking about an implied narrator, but a very carefully constructed, independent narrator, one who appears in other works of Conrad, a narrator Conrad discusses and describes as an independent creation. Confusing a narrator's experiences and views with those of the author is a very basic error, the sort of thing that one learns in English 101. I can only assume that she has been blinded by her personal views and that this is a momentary lapse.

Bottom line: never dull, often insightful, but not for all tastes and not for readers with specific needs seeking specific information.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews





Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums





Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject