Customer Reviews

Letters for the Living: Teaching Writing in a Violent Age (Refiguring English Studies)

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Something happened to me when I read Letters for the Living. I'm not sure what it is. I have been an adjunct, a tenure-track assistant professor, a high school teacher, and most recently a counselor in a division for troubled youths. After reading this book by Blitz and Hurlbert, I feel as though I understand my career(s) for the first time. I am doing what I can to make peace. I teach for peace. Letters for the Living is so moving, I wish it were available in every bookstore. I want to tell everyone to read this book, to appreciate the kind of friendships, experiences, and heartbreaking violence--and peace, yes--that fill the book with real power to make a difference in the lives of readers. Wonderful wonderful wonderful.

Too few academic books can hold an audience of non-academics. Blitz and Hurlbert have written a book that not only holds us, but rivets our attention from the first page to the last. The stories their students tell of violence combined with the stories--letters--Blitz and Hurlbert exchange throughtout the book, make for a narrative experience every bit as gripping as a fine novel. Parents of college students, fellow teachers, and students themselves should read this book. Somehow, we are all in this story, and Blitz and Hurlbert do a remarkable job in making us examine ourselves as makers of the society where violence has forced its way into everyday life.

My friend at Brown University sent me a copy of Blitz and Hurlbert's book. I let it sit around for a month or two. My son, an 11th grader, saw it sitting on the living room couch and was reading around in it. He told me it was a "weird" book. I understood this to mean that he liked it. Then I read it. It is a peculiar and interesting book. No. It is a fascinating, honest and compelling book. It is also an upsetting book. These two authors are so direct in their exchanges with one another, and their students are so vividly PRESENT in their own excerpted writings, I found myself almost flinching as I read. It's not a big book. I read it in one sitting, in about 2 hours and a half. But--and here's the crux of my review--I will read it again. I will reread sections of it many times. My friends will read this book. And yes, my son plans to finish it, too.

The immediacy of Letters to the Living is jolting. Blitz and Hurlbert allow themselves to be caught in the act of teaching, with all of the sticky intimacy that implies. They struggle not only with how to convey the relevance of composition to students living in the real world, but with how to recompose that world through writing. Their classrooms are emptied of convention but thick with false starts, clownishness, subterfuge and magical connections. By having students author their own lives, writing becomes proactive as well as reflective.In the end, Blitz and Hurlbert teach self and other advocacy, as well as literacy.

I think this is a wonderful book. My only complaint is that it should be longer so that these incredible stories from students (and from the authors) might be followed up. I wish I could know what happened to all these people. Other than that, the book is quite compelling; I read it all at one sitting---several hours very well spent. I am a high school language arts teacher, by the way.

I have to agree with the other reviewers. This book is one of those must-reads. As a graduate student in Composition, I especially appreciate how quotable this book is. It seems as though every page has at least one or two statements that I want to include in an article of my own! Blitz and Hurlbert manage to capture a sense of realism about teaching that should make anyone who plans a career in academia--as I do--sit up and take notice. This is a profession full of danger and responsibility. I have put this book on my exam list; my committee has approved it enthusiastically. I only hope I can produce a work like this when I am knee deep into the profession.

I was a student of Michael Blitz's a long time ago. I only wish I was one of the students whose work he and his co-writer quoted in this book. Even so, I felt proud when I read this book. Students want to feel like we matter to our teachers, and professors Blitz and Hurlbert definitely are two teachers who care about students, even students who are not always the best of people. This book is very moving. Like I said, I feel proud that I know one of the two authors. I would certainly recommend this book.

I teach graduate courses in Rhetoric and Composition and had heard about this book by Blitz and Hurlbert. The high praise seemed excessive...until I actually read the book. I was taken by the artfulness with which these authors render such emotional subject matter without a trace of the maudlin. They ask poignant questions, and elicit equally poignant responses from their students. This book doesn't simply offer profound insights into the nature of teaching writing, it also provides a remarkably workable plan for a large-scale assignment that students evidently appreciate deeply. I have put this book on my required-reading list for my graduate students. It should be required reading for anyone who teaches, and for anyone who believes the college writing class is a place of tranquil reflection. In fact, as Blitz and Hurlbert show, the writing class ought to be the locus of incredible discovery, sometimes painful, sometimes joyous, but always real. I hope this book finds its way into many, many hands.

How many books can you honestly say made you cry? I cried over these "letters" from young people trying to get a college education. They have seen such terrible violence and yet they find ways to write their hearts out for two splendid teachers, Michael Blitz and C. Mark Hurlbert. How do I know they are splendid teachers? I can only say you would have to read this book to understand. Michael and C. Mark write letters to each other, to their children, to themselves, too, I think. There is so much that is beautiful in this book that it's strange to say, also, that there is so much that is horrifying. I wanted a book about teaching that would offer something "different." This book offered me an experience that is unforgettable.

I came across this book on Amazon (no surprise)because I was looking to see if anyone with my last name had ever written a book. Surprise! I share a last name with one of the authors of _Letters for the Living_, so I got the book. I'm not a teacher (or a student for that matter), so I didn't have much hope to be too interested. WRONG!! This book moved me. It reads like a novel or a strange journal about real people who have gone through some unbelievable experiences. And what makes it more gripping is that these two authors are completely up-front about their experiences as teachers of kids who have lived through incredible violence. Michael Blitz and C. Mark Hurlbert sound like the kind of teachers we all wish we had. I know I hope my own kids can have teachers like this when they are in college. What a powerful book! All I can say is, read it!