Every reader can name at least one book that changed his or her life—and many more beloved titles will surely come to mind as well. In The Book That Changed My Life, fifteen of America’s most influential authors discuss their own special literary choices. These unique interviews with National Book Award winners and finalists offer new insights into the many ways in which the experience of reading shapes the act of writing. Robert Stone on Joseph Conrad’s Victory, Cynthia Ozick on Henry James’s Washington Square, Charles Johnson on Jack London’s The Sea-Wolf—each approaches the question of literary influence, while offering rich and wonderful revelations about his or her own writing career. James Carroll, Don DeLillo, E. L. Doctorow, Diane Johnson, Philip Levine, David Levering Lewis, Barry Lopez, David McCullough, Alice McDermott, Grace Paley, Linda Pastan, and Katherine Paterson are the other distinguished contributors to this collection of informed, insightful interviews.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Grace Paley describes her first encounter with the stories of Isaac Babel; Charles Johnson recalls being moved by Black Boy and a volume about yoga he found on his mother's bookshelf; and Don DeLillo explains that he spent his childhood not reading at all, but playing games-"street games, card games, alley games, rooftop games, fire escape games, punchball, stickball, handball, stoop ball"-in The Book That Changed My Life: Interviews with National Book Award Winners and Finalists. Freelance writer and editor Diane Osen talks to 15 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets and children's authors-including E.L. Doctorow, Alice McDermott, Philip Levine and Katherine Paterson-about formative influences as well as their recent works.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Osen, an editor and freelance writer with long-standing ties to the National Book Foundation, here gathers together 15 interviews with National Book Award winners and finalists, exploring how their reading has helped shape their lives and their art. Interviewees include James Carroll, Don DeLillo, E.L. Doctorow, Charles Johnson, Diane Johnson, Philip Levine, David Levering Lewis, Barry Lopez, David McCullough, Alice McDermott, Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, Linda Pastan, Katherine Paterson, and Robert Stone. A primary bibliography and a list of works influencing the author follow each interview. Expected sources like James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and F. Scott Fitzgerald appear on several writers' lists; less obvious influences include the effect of Tim O'Brien's novels on James Carroll and Linda Pastan's indebtedness to James Wright's work and Oscar Williams's landmark A Little Treasury of Modern Poetry. A tribute to the power of reading to shape our vision of ourselves and our world, this title is recommended for all literature collections.
William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll., Lib., CUNY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll., Lib., CUNY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very Disappointing,
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This review is from: The Book That Changed My Life: Interviews with National Book Award Winners and Finalists (Modern Library Paperbacks) (Paperback)
I think this book was horribly mis-advertised. I expected essays written by the National Book Award winners themselves, describing their own literary loves and inspirations. Instead, this book is a collection of extremely mediocre interviews with these otherwise interesting and remarkable talents. There are precious few pages in this book that themselves inspire anything beyond ennui. To add insult to injury, the featured writers and every true bibliophile will be appaled at the poor quality of printing and materials used for this book. The mass-market paperback stock used seems highly inappropriate, even considering the marginal quality of the content.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
There is good content here for the patient reader...,
By R. Neil Scott "Writer, Professor & User Servi... (Murfreesboro, TN USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Book That Changed My Life: Interviews with National Book Award Winners and Finalists (Modern Library Paperbacks) (Paperback)
Offers fairly brief, edited transcripts of interviews with fifteen writers who either won or were finalists for the National Book Award. Focusing on explorations of "insights in the many ways in which the experience of reading shapes the act of writing," the editor, freelance writer Diane Osen, offers readers a collection of wide-ranging discussions from some of the best writers of our present generation.
Writers interviewed include: James Carroll; Don DeLillo; E.L. Doctorow; Charles Johnson; Diane Johnson; Philip Levine; David Levering Lewis; Barry Lopez; David McCullough; Alice McDermott; Cynthia Ozick; Grace Paley; Linda Pastan; Katherine Paterson; and, Robert Stone. Because of the type of book it is -- with each writer bringing his/her own style, pace and content -- readers may want to read this book slowly, one writer's interview per day. Otherwise, it it may appear a bit disjointed and uneven. Still, there are real nuggets of wisdom and insight for the patient reader. Recommended for college and university libraries and large urban public libraries. R. Neil Scott Middle Tennessee State University
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
It just shows you can't judge a book by its cover blurb!,
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This review is from: The Book That Changed My Life: Interviews with National Book Award Winners and Finalists (Modern Library Paperbacks) (Paperback)
Appears to be raggedly edited interviews. And while it touches on the books that various authors claim have "changed their "lives" its rarely clear in what ways. Picked this for a book club book, most didn't care for it.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
James Carroll, Winner of the 1996 National Book Award for this memoir An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us, was born in Chicago in 1943 and grew up outside Washington, D.C., where his father worked as an FBI agent. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
National Book Award, New York, Pulitzer Prize, United States, Middle Passage, Katherine Paterson, Cold War, James Joyce, Linda Pastan, Charming Billy, John Adams, Martin Luther King, The Souls of Black Folk, World War, Columbia University, Mark Twain, Outerbridge Reach, Robert Stone, Walter Lord, Arctic Dreams, City of God, Damascus Gate, Faulkner Award, Lenny Bruce, Passionate Sage New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Surprise Me!
James Carroll, Winner of the 1996 National Book Award for this memoir An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us, was born in Chicago in 1943 and grew up outside Washington, D.C., where his father worked as an FBI agent. Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
National Book Award, New York, Pulitzer Prize, United States, Middle Passage, Katherine Paterson, Cold War, James Joyce, Linda Pastan, Charming Billy, John Adams, Martin Luther King, The Souls of Black Folk, World War, Columbia University, Mark Twain, Outerbridge Reach, Robert Stone, Walter Lord, Arctic Dreams, City of God, Damascus Gate, Faulkner Award, Lenny Bruce, Passionate Sage New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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1
book
cites this book:
- The Souls of Black Folk (Dover Thrift Editions) by W. E. B. Du Bois on 4 pages
- Black Folk: Then and Now; An Essay in the History and Sociology of the Negro Race. by William Edward Burghardt, Du Bois on 4 pages
- Winter Count by Barry Lopez on page 85, page 95, and page 96
- Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (New York Review Books Classics) by Angus Wilson on page 52, page 53, and page 56
- Charming Billy by Alice McDermott on page 109, page 110, and page 120
See all 100 books this book cites
- Response & Analysis, Second Edition: Teaching Literature in Secondary School by Robert E. Probst in Back Matter
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