A literary apprenticeship in eleven letters, by the internationally acclaimed master of the novel In the tradition of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Mario Vargas Llosa condenses a lifetime of writing, reading, and thought into an essential manual for aspiring writers, revealing in the process his deepest beliefs about our common literary endeavor. A writer, in his view, is a being seized by an insatiable appetite for creation, a rebel, and a dreamer. But dreams, when set down on paper, require disciplined development, and so Vargas Llosa undertakes to supply the tools of transformation. Drawing on the stories and novels of writers from around the globe -- Borges, Bierce, Céline, Cortázar, Faulkner, Kafka, Robbe-Grillet -- he lays bare the inner workings of fiction, examining time, space, style, and structure, all the while urging young novelists not to lose touch with the elemental urge to create. Conversational, eloquent, and effortlessly erudite, this little book is destined to be read and reread by young writers, old writers, would-be writers, and all those with a stake in the world of letters.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
It's Genius AND a Cure for Insomnia to Boot:
This was summer reading for my junior year of high school IB English. It's a true brain bender. It is a work of fiction, in epistolary form (letters), from an established author to a young man who has been writing asking for novel-writing advice. I saw that someone tagged this as non-fiction. No it is FICTION. The jaw-dropping reason for this is below. If you think this is a guide you could easily use in your own writing exploits, think again! Only a true academic-writer-snob would even attempt that.... more info
good advice but a bit much for a "young" novelist:
The introduction leads one to believe this is geared toward a fourteen or fifteen year old potential writer. God knows it would have flown over my head at any time before my mid-twenties - both the intellectual discussions presented and the literary references made. It still shown a bright blazing light at my near complete ignorance of Spanish and Latin American novelists. But taken in the sense of "young" meaning "beginning" novelist, it was a good read with a lot of interesting viewpoints on the... more info
Entertaining but forgettable:
These short essays examine various literary techniques in detail but are ultimately unhelpful in writing (or reading) fiction. While discussing narrative options available to the writer, we never are offered advice of why different techniques work or when they might work. Or even how different authors make them work (except for one or two examples in the final chapters). There is only the indefinable je ne sais quoi. The book is very well written, witty and it is interesting to see the list of the works... more info
Essential Companion:
Reading Mario Vargas Llosa's works of literature is one of the best experiences a reader can have. In "Letters to a Young Novelist" Vargas Llosa shares the name of authors that have shaped his life as a writer, along with his personal insight on narrative techniques, and an unconditional love for the written word. Each chapter presents valuable information for anyone interested in the art of writing or for anyone who enjoys reading a well-written book.
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