Customer Reviews

Write Like the Masters: Emulating the Best of Hemingway, Faulkner, Salinger, and Others

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The author, an English professor at the City University of New York and Boston College and himself a published writer, analyses the writing and fiction-writing techniques of 21 famous authors, going back to Balzac, Dickens and Melville and as far forward in time as Ray Bradbury and Stephen King. His insights are brilliant.

There is a brief biographical sketch at the beginning of each chapter on a writer. And these are quite interesting. But it is the revelations of how each writer worked his or her magic that form the heart of each chapter. Also, there are a lot of quotations and examples from each writer's works to illustrate Cane's points. I would also add that every point in this book on fiction technique is indispensable and should be a part of the fiction-writer's craft--and these days part of the nonfiction writer's craft too.

William Cane has taught this material to a generation of budding writers, helping them to improve their own writing. And thoughtful application of insights the author clearly delineates will undoubtedly improve a writer's writing and understanding of the craft. Mr. Cane is confident that his book will advance the reader's writing ability, putting her "light-years ahead" of her fellow writers.

One slight negative: I wish the author had included exercises at the end of each chapter that would enable the reader to easily apply the important lessons read in the chapter. That would have enhanced the value of the book every more.

Well worth the money. This book has a permanent place on my writing books shelf. And I will ba re-reading it a number of times, probably also taking notes from it.
Highly recommended.

Read by itself, cover-to-cover, the book is overwhelming. It details, if only lightly, the writing and story-telling strengths and techniques of various novelists. Taken by itself, this could be quite daunting, not just because of the number of novelists the text discussed, but because sometimes the writing styles of novelists are in conflict with each other. In retrospect, however, this book provides ideas about who to read and which aspects of their writing you should in mind (and perhaps emulate in your own writing) as you read them.

I will return to this book, not in its entirety, but in small pieces, as I expand my library and the diversity of my studies in literature, and that is my take on how the book ought to be used.

On top of that, I do enjoy the author's basic premise: copying the masters is not only OK, but also worthy of encouragement. Any good engineer knows that you ought to build on the foundation that was laid before. Unfortunately, this is a lesson that seems to have been forgotten or omitted in modern writing classes, where individual creativity is encouraged and emulation of another's writing style is only a step or two removed from plagiarism.

This is a great book that belongs on any aspiring writer's bookshelf.

As a self-taught writer (with prior technical writing experience, but no prior creative writing training), I've read perhaps 30+ books on "how to write a novel" or some aspect of plotting, dramatization, etc.

As another reviewer notes, the premise of this book is that it's OK to know and emulate the good writing of the masters. The author provides excerpts that provide good, concrete examples of the writings of the masters along with interesting biographical sketches of the authors. I'd recommend this highly for those who read books about the craft of creative writing. No, it is not a workshop book with writing exercises - but the more one thinks about and studies the craft, the better one gets. One last thing. It's actually an enjoyable read. Five Stars. RK.

I love this book. It is very helpful to would be writers but also very interesting for those interested in how some of the great writers wrote. It is a good quality hardbook book and it is very well written and easy to read.
I bought it because, like the author, I believe that to improve my writing I need to know how great writers write and then I can imitate them. This theory is anathema to most creative writing tutors who keep repeating the mantra 'don't imitate because you must have an original voice'. I've never heard a piano tutor say to a promising piano student 'stop playing that Mozart and play your own stuff because you need an original sound.' This book consists of 21 chapters each about a different great author. William Cane selects a few specific things that the author did well and explains them so that we mere mortals can use the techniques in our writing. So he picks characterisation and suspense from Dickens, description from Fleming and the structure of sentences from Hemingway, to select a few lessons. This is the best bit of the book; after reading each chapter I believe I can emulate that great writer in some way so I think this book is helping me improve my writing.
I recommend this book to every writer; you will benefit from it.
By the author of; Call me Aphrodite

I can't tell you how much I've learned from this book! Write like the Masters should definately be on every aspiring authors list of MUST READS! I would put this right up there with Revision & Self-Editing by James Scott Bell and On Writing, by Stephen King (particularly if you're a thriller writer). You will learn to master and understand the various styles of writing by all the greats including: Balzac, Dickenson, Melville, Faulkner, King and so so many more. If you want to improve and master the craft of writing, this is one you cannot miss!

Jeff Bennington
Author of Killing the Giants & the short story, The Rumblin
The Rumblin

This is a great book that teaches writing technqiues. While there is no substitute for reading the masters such as Hemingway, Faulkner etc, this book distills the techniques used, complete with examples. I highly recommend it.

This book is not only technically helpful, inspiring, it is a fun read. I bought it several months ago and I read it over and over. This is the closest you can get to a "magic writing potion". Like other reviewers have said, he gives background info on the authors, techniques on everything from sentence style to the authors inspiration. But,the biggest thing he does is grant you permission to copy the greats. Embracing that advice has improved my fiction writing immensely(this review is not a good sample of my writing since all I am doing is gushing) My only criticism is that he does not have a volume two. There are so many other writers I would like to immitate.

Excellent outline on the writing philosophy and technique of the 'masters'. Hope there is a volume 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and ...

Full of interesting facts and ideas about each writer but I'm not sure its all applicable when you go to write on your own. Entertaining...yes, but perhaps only marginally helpful.

I did enjoy this book, but the main reason I bought it was for the chapter on Kafka. Kafka is my favorite author. I have read his works, his letters, and works on his works.

William Cane seems to notice only the obvious and least attractive aspects of Kafka's style. There is something about Kafka which has nothing to do with alienation, nightmare, and bizarre fantasy. What made Kafka stand out wasn't his idea of turning a man into a giant cockroach...that is his most well-known story but probably because it appeals to all ages. The Trial (contents not arranged by Max Brod but according to the Crime and Punishment template) and the Castle are his best works. The Castle is Kafka's greatest achievement.

Kafka described behavior in a way that no other auther has, except maybe Knut Hamsun. People in the story behave towards the main character as if they are merely objects in his dream. It is behavior that is special in Kafka, not horror and not fantastic, cartoonish stories. Many contemporaries of Kafka wrote cartoonish fantasies, and Kafka didn't like it.

Also, on page 171, in the Ian Fleming chapter, in the very last line, Cane wrote, "which is contained in the Lilly Library at the University of Indiana." The Lilly Library is a beautiful library that transforms you when you walk in and out of its door. It can be found at Indiana University, in Bloomington (not University of Indiana).