The Paris Review Interviews, II [Deckle Edge] [Paperback]

The Paris Review (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2007 | Series: Paris Review Interviews (Book 2)

Since The Paris Review was founded in 1953, it has given us invaluable conversations with the greatest writers of our age, vivid self-portraits that are themselves works of finely crafted literature. From William Faulkner's determination that a great novel takes "ninety-nine percent talent . . . ninety-nine percent discipline . . . ninety-nine percent work," to Gabriel García Márquez's observation that "in the first paragraph, you solve most of the problems with your book," The Paris Review has elicited revelatory and revealing thoughts from our most accomplished novelists, poets, and playwrights. With an introduction by Orhan Pamuk, this volume brings together another rich, varied crop of literary voices, including Toni Morrison, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Graham Greene, James Baldwin, Stephen King, Philip Larkin, Eudora Welty, and more. "A colossal literary event," as Gary Shteyngart put it, The Paris Review Interviews, II, is an indispensable treasury of wisdom from the world's literary masters.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Paris Review books should be given out at dinner parties, readings, riots, weddings, galas -- shindigs of every shape. And they're perfect for the classroom too, from high schools all the way to MFA programs. In fact, I run a whole semester-long creative writing class based on the interviews. How else would I get the world's greatest living writers, living and dead, to come into the classroom with their words of wisdom, folly and fury? These books are wonderful, provocative, indispensible."--Colum McCann, novelist and Hunter College professor

"The most remarkable and extensive interviewing project we possess."--Richard Eder, The New York Times
 
"A small treasure. The interviews are literary landmarks, and the gossip, humor, ideas, and practical advice dispensed are bracing."--San Francisco Chronicle
 
"Utterly absorbing . . . The interviews are all fascinating and often quite funny."--The Boston Globe

"Groundbreaking, eclectic, indispensable Q&As."--Elle

"As The Paris Review Interviews reveals, there is an art to the interview and a value to what it brings. . . . In the best interviews, the exchange of question and answer brings the authors to life."--The Wall Street Journal

"Fascinating interviews . . . [The subjects] discuss their writing and methods with detail and candidness found nowhere else. While lit fans will undoubtedly be satisfied, aspiring authors will glean tremendous insight from these masters of the craft."--The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

 

"The unguarded moment . . . that's the holy grail for any interviewer trying to discover what makes a writer tick. The Paris Review has a long history of delivering such moments in the author interviews it has conducted over the past half century."--The Seattle Times

 

"A stimulating, funny, and provocative snapshot of five decades' worth of (mostly) American literary history . . . The resulting conversations are luminous and often revelatory."--Minneapolis Star-Tribune

 

"Fascinating . . . This book will intrigue and delight any serious reader or writer. It may even inspire."--The Times Literary Supplement (London)

 

"Here is a canon of great minds. . . . A fascinating attempt at getting to the heart of how writers work."--Financial Times (London)

About the Author

The Paris Review has published early and important work by Philip Roth, V. S. Naipaul, Jeffrey Eugenides, A. S. Byatt, T. C. Boyle, William T. Vollmann, and many other defining writers of the past half century. Some of the magazine’s exceptional stories, poems, and conversations have been collected by Picador in The Paris Review Book of People with Problems as well as The Paris Review Book for Planes, Trains, Elevators, and Waiting Rooms and The Paris Review Book of Heartbreak, Madness, Sex, Love, Betrayal, Outsiders, Intoxication, War, Whimsy, Horrors, God, Death, Dinner, Baseball, Travels, the Art of Writing, and Everything Else in the World Since 1953.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312363141
• ISBN-13: 978-0312363147
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #686,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superior Collection, but if you have to choose between vol 2 and vol 1..., June 8, 2009

By 

Judge J Drhedd - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Paris Review Interviews, II (Paperback)

The best way to enjoy this book is to not read it straight out. It's best to use it as a break from a novel perhaps (I used this as a respite from reading the very long Buffett biography), or treat it as a book you go back to from time to time, a couple of days gap. If you read any three interviews in succession, you will feel bored and numbed by guidance and 'quotable quotes' about writing, and probably fail to appreciate the nuanced points about the writer's craft being discussed.

That being said, the best piece is still the one with Faulkner, then Garcia Marquez, then Bloom. The pieces on Thurber and King are also great reads

If youre deciding between vol. 1 and vol 2. Volume 1 is a better choice, by a few points. (I havent read Part III yet). Why? For one the amazing interview with Borges is there. And then the variety on the discussion regarding the "Art of Editing" (with Gottlieb and the superb writers he had edited works of), the poetry/poverty/adventure of Cain, annoyed tips of Hemingway, etcetera are all priceless.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fine collection...suggestion for isaac singer fans, July 7, 2009

By 

erica2 (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Paris Review Interviews, II (Paperback)

This is a fine collection, but if it is Isaac Bashevis Singer you are interested in, you'll do much better to get the book I've linked to below. The best is to read both the PR interview plus the Burgin book but the Burgin book is, of course, more in-depth and contains a wealth of info for writers as well as readers.

CONVERSATIONS WITH ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER

Conversations With Isaac Bashevis Singer

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars understanding the writing and behind, the thinking, January 3, 2008

By 

Pierre-henri Puech - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Paris Review Interviews, II (Paperback)

5 stars for that incredible initiative of showing the way writers are writing, and behind this, thinking the stories, the personnages...

i have to say, that is a source of inspiration and of understanding of your own style/way of writing

something to really have on your shelves !!!