The Fiction Class (Paperback)

by Susan Breen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The collision of truth and fiction can result in romance or even redemption—or so say the writing exercises and life lessons that make up Breen's debut novel. For years, Arabella Hicks's love life, like her writing life, has felt flat and fruitless. Still, the 38-year-old copy editor and part-time teacher can summon neither the drive to date nor the wherewithal to finish her novel, Courting Disaster, now seven years in the rewriting. She's anxious about her mother, Vera, whom she visits in a nursing home every Wednesday after teaching her writing class. Worried about Vera's Parkinson's disease—and still grieving her father's death—Arabella discovers her personal fears seeping into classroom discussions of plot, point of view and dialogue. One student, the well-spoken, well-to-do Chuck, begins a relationship with Arabella and thus installs himself into the mother-daughter drama. Breen, a writing instructor, sometimes overplays her hand, but she does inject a dose of originality into an otherwise familiar setup. (Feb.)
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From Booklist
With a name that conjures up windswept romance novels, you would expect Arabella Hicks' life to be as enchanted as that of a happily-after-heroine. Instead she's a middle-aged writer, teaching a fiction writing class, flirting with one of her students, and taking care of her ailing mother, Vera. As the semester wears on, Arabella and her students slowly reveal more of their private lives to one another, while Vera admits that she has written a story. Unfortunately, she can't think of the perfect ending and wants Arabella and her students to help her. But how can Arabella when she can't even think of an ending for her own unfinished story? Peppered with literary references and Arabella's class assignments, Breen's novel is surprisingly touching. Although Arabella's students resemble stock characters—the wacky old lady, the beautiful girl hiding a terrible secret—this is a poignant yet amusing tale of family relationships rendered even more satisfying by Breen's dispensing of Strunk & White–like advice. Hatton, Hilary

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Plume (February 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452289106
• ISBN-13: 978-0452289109
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #106,642 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite books so far this year, March 26, 2008

By	Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

THE FICTION CLASS by Susan Breen
March 26, 2008

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Here is a book that caught me by surprise. THE FICTION CLASS centered on a frustrated writer who taught a weekly writing class once a week. At the same time, she was also dealing with an aging parent. Arabelle and her mother never got along, and while Arabelle went to visit her every week, it was out of duty and guilt, not love. But because of her writing class, she forms a new bond with her mother and begins to learn more about the woman that raised her.

While Arabelle's relationship with her mother changes, so does her relationship with her students of her weekly fiction writing class. I marveled at the depth of each character, and how real Breen was able to make each character appear. The class goes from strangers to friends, and I enjoyed the parallel experiences that Arabelle had inside the classroom and in the home where her mother now resided. One student in particular strikes a nerve with Arabelle, and he's the one that in a way bridges her life in the classroom with the life she has with her dying mother.

A short and fast read, yet full of depth, THE FICTION CLASS may end up on my list of top books for 2008. The subject matter was what I was able to relate to, a woman coming to terms with the relationship she had with her mother, a relationship that was at best stormy and fragile.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life and Fiction Collide, March 21, 2008

By	Marlys M. Styne "Author of 'Reinventing Mysel... (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Susan Breen's novel The Fiction Class (Plume, 2008) is a book that kept my attention from beginning to end. This book interweaves the challenges of writing and teaching writing with the challenges of life itself.

Arabella Hicks, named for the heroine of her mother's favorite romance novel, balances copy editing jobs and weekly visits to her argumentative, hostile mother in a nursing home with teaching fiction writing to a varied adult ed class.

Arabella is 38, single, isolated, unsure of herself, and still grieving for her father, who died after many depressing years in a wheelchair as the result of Multiple Schlerosis. Her mother has advanced Parkinson's Disease.

A further depressing fact is Arabella's inability to conclude the novel she's been working on for seven years, Courting Disaster.

Her Wednesdays form a pattern: teach the class, then visit her mother, Vera Hicks, bringing coveted fast food that may or may not be appreciated. Vera's condition and mood swings are impossible to predict, so Arabella approaches the visits with dread.

Like many writing teachers, Arabella seems to rely on her students' written work to get to know them. Ironically, when her talk about the class inspires Vera to write a story of her own, Arabella learns about her mother as well.

The newly-awakened Arabella learns, in a sense, to believe in miracles as she finally begins to understand her students and her mother and to open her heart to love. and as that happens, she can begin a new novel.

The connections between real life and fiction have always fascinated me. My experiences as a reader, writer, teacher and visitor of my own mother in a nursing home make The Fiction Class ring amazingly true to me. The book also supports my belief in the power of writing for all, something that Arabella and Vera and most of the writing class students seem to discover as well.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars would make a great flick, July 5, 2008

By	Agnes O'Neill - See all my reviews

If you're a frustrated writer, this book is for you. All of us think we have a book 'in us' but few do. Reading this book was not only incredibly enjoyable, it really was like taking a fiction class, with pointers at the end of each chapter. The characters were instantly recognizable as living, breathing beings and I could easily see this as a great film. I was sorry when the book ended. I can only hope that Breen writes a sequel based on events at the end of the book. A "must" read!