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James Wood

The Nearest Thing to Life (The Mandel Lectures in the Humanities at Brandeis University) Paperback – April 28, 2015

by James Wood (Author)

34 ratings

Part of: The Mandel Lectures in the Humanities at Brandeis University (4 books)

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In this remarkable blend of memoir and criticism, James Wood, the noted contributor to the New Yorker, has written a master class on the connections between fiction and life. He argues that of all the arts, fiction has a unique ability to describe the shape of our lives and to rescue the texture of those lives from death and historical oblivion. The act of reading is understood here as the most sacred and personal of activities, and there are brilliant discussions of individual works―among others, Chekhov’s story “The Kiss,” The Emigrants, by W. G. Sebald, and The Blue Flower, by Penelope Fitzgerald. Wood reveals his own intimate relationship with the written word: we see the development of a boy from the provinces growing up in a charged Christian environment, the secret joy of his childhood reading, the links he draws between reading and blasphemy, or between literature and music. The final section discusses fiction in the context of exile and homelessness. More than a tightly argued little book by a man commonly regarded as our finest living critic, The Nearest Thing to Life is an exhilarating personal account that reflects on, and embodies, the fruitful conspiracy between reader and writer (and critic), and asks us to reconsider everything that is at stake when we read and write fiction.

Print length

144 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Brandeis University Press
Publication date

April 28, 2015
Dimensions

5 x 0.4 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

161168742X
ISBN-13

978-1611687422
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[These] conversational essays [are] as illuminating in their quiet sophistication as they are revealing about Wood himself."-- "Newsweek"

"[Wood's] head is the vessel in which the treasures of literature are gathered to be protected from time. But the treasury Wood guards is not merely aesthetic: books are safety-deposit boxes for human affection, like urns that contain words not ashes."-- "The Guardian"

"Rich in verbal artistry . . . [Wood] provides virtuoso displays of eloquence and insight."-- "Publishers Weekly"

Offering characteristically sensitive readings of Penelope Fitzgerald, Chekhov, De Quincey and others, Wood's latest book also features grand pronouncements about literature of the kind that have provoked accusations that he is old-fashioned. In this case, however, he presents a more vulnerable, approachable version of himself by including details about his own life, as a boy in England and as a father living in Boston.-- "New York Times Book Review"

About the Author

JAMES WOOD is a British-born literary critic, essayist, and novelist. He is Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at Harvard University and a staff writer at the New Yorker magazine.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Brandeis University Press; 1st edition (April 28, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 161168742X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1611687422
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.4 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #744,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,051 in General Books & Reading
- #3,514 in Essays (Books)
- #28,907 in Memoirs (Books)

Customer Reviews:
34 ratings

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4 star		27%
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Charlus

Life Itself

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2015

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In a series of 4 elegantly written lectures, James Wood explores several reasons why writing and reading so vitally matter.

Starting with a memorial service, which triggers thoughts regarding a theologic role for literature:

"What I loved, what I love, about fiction is its proximity to, and final difference from, religious texts. The real, in fiction, is always a matter of belief - it is up to us as readers to validate and confirm. It is a belief that is requested, and that we can refuse at any time" (p.13)

Wood takes different ideas and expands them to show how literature plays a role in letting us see the world and our place in it, in ways no other medium allows.

His initial immersion and then rebellion from a deeply religious background color his ideas about reading (and the almost giddy escape to freedom of thought it allowed), which helps explain the seriousness with which he approaches the written word. These pieces are autobiographical, but only as a stepping stone to more universal themes dealing with what we look for from the experience of reading.

As always, he is a close reader, and by pointing out particular images or turns of phrase he can illuminate the passage at hand or the entire work. He writes about the responsibilities of the critic in the chapter "Using Everything", and "of a critical retelling as a way of writing through books, not just about them" (p.84). He writes of the ability of the writer to be a serious noticer, of having the ability to see, where the rest of us merely look. And finally, he speaks of being a transplant to America, of home sickness and uses this to explore the current state of emigrant literature.

I find it hard to believe that one can read James Wood and not be inspired to be a better reader, after getting a glimpse the layers of riches literature has to offer, and that most of us merely trample underfoot without taking the time to dig, unearth and wonder at.

24 people found this helpful

Helpful

Joseph Fuentes

The Nearest Thing to Life

Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2015

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This book is comprised of fours essays, three of which were actually given as lectures at the Mandel Center for the Humanities in Brandeis University. What the title refers to as the nearest thing to life is the art of writing. The book's epigraph is a quote from George Eliot: "Art is the nearest thing to life; it is a mode of amplifying experience and extending our contact with our fellow-men beyond the bounds of our personal lot." In the first chapter, we are presented with James Wood's absorbing notions on why the novel was born, and how it is like an attempt on the part of writers to become God -- overcoming death and the constraints and limitations of life . The second chapter entitled "Serious Noticing" focuses on the necessary characteristics by writers to produce great fiction. To those who are familiar with his book "How Fiction Works," they will see again here how powerful metaphors work and leave imprints on the readers' minds. The third chapter is about literary criticism, which also contains exciting information about the book that influenced him the most. The last chapter is surprisingly about being an "emigrant" or an exile in another country, which James Wood is, born and raised in England, who became an expatriate living in the US for almost 18 years now. Here James Wood talks wistfully about his early childhood life in northern England.

I would say that among the books by James Wood that I've read, this one has the touch of being the most personal. Not only because it contains details regarding his childhood years, but also because in it, he discusses how important the art of fiction is to his life, and how it should be to ours. After reading the book, it felt like I've just had a very articulate conversation with a man who is not only truly intelligent, but who's also very warm and nobly affectionate.

Some of my favorite quotes:

"Often, in life, I have felt that an essentially novelistic understanding of motive has helped me to begin to fathom what someone else really wants from me, or from another person. Sometimes, it is almost frightening to realize how poorly most people know about themselves; it seems to put one at an almost priestly advantage over people's souls."

"But perhaps we can bring back life, or extend life, here on earth, by doing the same: by applying what Walter Banjamin once called 'the natural prayer of the soul: attentiveness.'"

32 people found this helpful

Helpful

Rosalind Brackenbury

... valuable book for writers - and a celebration of good fiction.

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2018

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A very valuable book for writers - and a celebration of good fiction.

One person found this helpful

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William S. Williams

Erudite and thoughtful.

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2016

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Outstanding work. Erudite and thoughtful, a compelling analysis of exile and homesickness. Wood has a gentle voice and a deep understanding of how literature works covering a wide range of material from De Quincey to W.G. Sebald to Alexsander Hemon.

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Ed Sanford

A very rich use of my favorite idiom, I love his skilled writing

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2017

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A very rich use of my favorite idiom, I love his skilled writing, one can nearly taste his deliceous words.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Christopher S Legg

One of my favorite books

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2016

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One of the best writers out there, his command of words and stories make this a book everyone should read

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Carl Haller

Don't Miss "All of It"

Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2015

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Superb reader and so much fun to trace his trails and and the books that have influenced him as a critic and human being.

2 people found this helpful

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David Curry

For the committed reader

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2015

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Literature is better off for having a reader like James Wood. My favorite lecture here is "Serious Noticing," in which he smartly and passionately makes the case for attentiveness in both writers and readers. If reading is central to your life, get this book.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Dr. David Woods

Eloquent, heuristic, provocative and elegant unveiling of the material of literature

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2019

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The headline says enough, other than to say I fantasize that were I to approach him (thru his publishers) he responds - I said it was a fantasy - and agrees to read and write an honest (what else would one expect) criticism of my novel MAPPA MUNDI, bits of which would adorn the covers and some early pages before one got to the wonderful ninth draft at 970 pp., because HE'S SO GOOD!

Malcolm James

Wood not only writes brilliantly about literature

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2017

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Wood not only writes brilliantly about literature, but fascinatingly about his life's experience of reading, his own life and by implication others'lives. Reality and the need for stories.

Amazon Customer

Had Expected More

Reviewed in India on November 15, 2019

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I am not sure if my reaction to the book is due to my flawed, distracted reading or the book failed to move me intellectually and emotionally. Perhaps later some day I will go to the book again to get more out of it.

Colly

Supplied with excellent service. This essay is an expansion of a ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2015

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Supplied with excellent service. This essay is an expansion of a topic unfolded in Wood's How Fiction Works. Feels a bit skinny. But Wood is stimulating and as lucid as usual.

patrick murphy

James Wood - best critic in the Western world 2015!

Reviewed in Canada on August 11, 2015

Verified Purchase

Excellent piece of Lit. Crit as usual from the pen of James Wood.

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