Customer Reviews

Points of View: Revised Edition

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book uses a wonderfully varied selection of stories to teach the reader about different Point of View's (pov) and how they effect the tone and content of a story. As a wanna-be writer I have found this one of my most effective books I make frequent reference to.

My review is of the 1966 New American Library edition of the work. I found this book to be an excellent educator in the art of the short - story. The editors give two examples of stories in the following categories: Interior Monlongue, Dramatic Monologue, Letter Narration, Diary Narration, Subjective Narration, Detached Autobiography, Memoir or Observed Narration, Biography or Anonymous Narration, Anonymous Narration Dual Character Point-of- View ,Anonymous Narration Multiple Character Point- of - View Anonymous Narration No Character Point of view. Among the many memorable stories here are classics of the genre by Joyce, Edgar Allan Poe, de Maupassant, Conrad, Henry James, Dostoevsky. There is a great story by Irwin Shaw "Act of Faith"and Updike's well- known "A & P".
There is much to learn and much to enjoy here. However I missed there not being a story from my own personal favorite story-writer Isaac Bashevis Singer.

This book was given to us by a Canadian exhange teacher and it has opened up so many avenues of reading. From Shirley Jackson's horror masterpiece The Lottery through to Truman Capote's My Side of the Matter, it is a brilliant, brillant anthology. A lifetime's reading awaits anyone who picks up this book as each story makes you seek out the author.

I read the first edition as a teenager; it opened my eyes to perspective in literature. This updated edition provides some of the best of the first edition with some new, very satisfying selections.

This book offers an excellent selection of stories written in various points of view. If you want to accent your studies or if you need to see the point of view element in action, this book is the perfect source. Chapter organization is based on each type of point of view so that the reader can zero in on whatever point of view she would like to review. The authors featured are both classical writers and modern authors. After working through dozens of books on point of view, this one stands out from the others.
This book is a keeper. It belongs in the collection of any serious writer.

Fantastic set of classic short stories. I have re-read many of them. While I have several collections of short stories- this one is by far the best.

This book is very handy in teaching students the art of the personal essay. It has many diverse examples. Check it out!

Why revise and update a collection of short stories that included some of the best examples of craft from the last 150 years? To be inclusive, to be fair, to be PC.... What is the ultimate effect of that intent? An ardent wish that the first edition be put back into print alongside this second edition, so that the PC crowd could have their book, while the rest of us, who aren't scared of good reading, could have the other. But even if this egalitarian scenario were to be enacted, this current edition would be worth a look-see for the new gems that the editors managed to include, especially "Doby's Gone" by Ann Petry. Yes, it's true that stories have been neglected in the past due to stifling notions about race and gender. But what this collection demonstrates is that stories are still neglected due to stifling notions about race and gender. What has suffered this time around is craft & quality (not to mention representation from more qualified authors). Most of the excellent selections are holdovers from the first edition. Many of the rest (but certainly not all) are politically correct and not much else

This book is a copy/paste of other books and taught me nothing in the way of points of view.