4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A repetitive book..., November 27, 2006
This review is from: Unconventions: Attempting the Art of Craft and the Craft of Art (Paperback)
Best Audience: The best audience for this book is a writer seeking guidance for writing and publishing fiction in unconventional ways, or a teacher of undergraduate, graduate or a community continuing education program looking for unconventional aspects of fiction to present to a class. A teacher of either undergraduate or graduate writing (fiction or nonfiction) courses may find this book interesting and at times inspiring, however it seems more the sort of book that would best be utilized by a teacher for reference rather than required classroom reading.
Summary: Michael Martone grew up in Indiana and is currently the director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Alabama. He is a writer who has been dubbed as having a "problem with authority," and thrives at being unconventional. In the opening essay of this book, I Love a Parade, Martone describes the experience he had of marching banner-less in his community's parade. He marched alone between parade floats (much to the confusion of the folks lining the streets) in a testament to the solitary life of a writer and the fact that there is nothing concrete for a writer to belong to, or march with.
This book consists of articles based class lectures, public addresses, essays, an interview and a eulogy. The subject that Martone covers in the most detail and seems most passionate about is the different ways in which works of fiction can be framed as well as new ways to frame stories. He (repeatedly) references his book, The Blue Guide to Indiana, which he published portions of in a local newspaper camouflaged as nonfiction. He encourages writers to explore the ordinary in their stories and not overlook the importance of the frame in which their stories appear.
The chapter entitled: The History of Corn is based on a craft lecture he gave which considers the 1938 painting by Lowell Houser by that name. The painting hangs in the post office in Ames, Iowa, and Martone explores the multi-dimensional story telling contained within not only this painting but the 1,000 post office murals in the country and how they are more like narratives than just pictures. He encourages thinking of the "nonfiction in the fiction."
Other especially interesting chapters in this book include the interview, Adventure on the Cultural Landscape, which addresses regionalist writers (he considers himself an Indiana writer and writes about Indiana even though he hasn't lived there since he was a child); Appliances: Domestic Details and Describing Rituals of the Ordinary, which speaks to creating an authentic setting out of the every day details in your life; and The Tyranny of Praise, which is the result of a conversation had with a colleague. While on campus Martone and his colleague were both looking at a new sculpture that had been displayed and his colleague expressed his distaste for the sculpture. Martone then speaks about his colleagues (almost uncontrollable) necessity to assert judgment over the piece and speaks to recognizing the artistic merit of something (a piece of writing or a sculpture) without asserting your own power of judgment over it - understanding that it may be imperfect or not in your taste, but that it is the result of someone's creative vision.
Sample Paragraph:
From the chapter entitled: The History of Corn
"Let me try to picture some examples of post office murals. I sort them into three rough categories in order to talk about them. But what should be noticed about all of these pictures, the next time you look, is how crammed they are with things, how busy they are. These murals seem to be telling two types of stories simultaneously. Any one of those stories is embedded in the larger story of the whole painting. This tension, one of the polarities Park and Markowitz discuss, gives these murals, in my mind, their charm and power. And it is this very tension I puzzle over when writing my own stories or reading the stories of others. How to engage both spheres of the character's lives and locales-the private and public, the microcosmic and the cosmic (Pg 103)."
From the chapter entitled: Ruining a Story
"Novels murder and create. Stories are the scenes of crimes. I find when I talk about stories, I often use the metaphors of detection, archaeology, pathology, forensics of all kinds. Collecting the evidence often is enough in a story. As a reader I am satisfied in the periphery of my nerves. Instead of its solution, the vibrations of the crime itself, its harmonic, are encoded in the air (Pg 119)."
Main Strength: There are moments of brilliance in this collection, specifically Martone's constant urging for writers to bring the non-fiction aspects of their life into their fiction writing in order to "risk a more public display of private emotion." Martone urges writers to bring the every day appliances and objects of their lives into their fiction as a way to bring both author and reader closer to the larger community. There are beautifully written sentences and thoughtful commentary on writing, teaching writing and what is means to be a writer scattered throughout the book. When you stumble upon one of these moments in the book it is satisfying and enlightening - however he can rarely hit one of these points only once.
Main Weakness: It's repetitive. Martone refers to the Blue Guide to Indiana so much that as a reader I began to resent it and lose interest quickly. It almost seemed as if Martone did not have enough to draw from and as a result much of the book hit upon similar points over and over again. I understand that this is a book that explores several unconventional writing practices (and an unconventional structure), but in general it lacked any real purpose and failed to hold my interest.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
