Join Ursula K. Le Guin as she explores a broad array of subjects, ranging from Tolstoy, Twain, and Tolkien to women's shoes, beauty, and family life. With her customary wit, intelligence, and literary craftsmanship, she offers a diverse and highly engaging set of readings. The Wave in the Mind includes some of Le Guin's finest literary criticism, rare autobiographical writings, performance art pieces, and, most centrally, her reflections on the arts of writing and reading.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
A treasure trove:
To quote a particularly apt back-cover blurb, "What a pleasure it is to roam around in LeGuin's spacious, playful mind." This miscellany of thirty non-fiction pieces, some quite informal and all very readable, is the product of a very keen, wide-ranging, and imaginative yet disciplined mind. A few of the pieces are personal or semi-autobiographical, but most in one way or another concern literature, storytelling, reading, or the craft (and ethics) of writing fiction. Almost all contain original insights or... more info
Midwest Book Review, February 2005 Issue:
Having read and enjoyed LeGuin's previous non-fiction works (particularly DANCING AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, THE LANGUAGE OF THE NIGHT, and her writing book, STEERING THE CRAFT), I expected an interesting and entertaining volume of essays. What I got far exceeded my expectations. I was enchanted from the first words, and I could hardly wait to read as many of these pieces as I could gulp down each night. When I finished, I was unhappy it was all consumed. I wanted more. The book is a cornucopia of... more info
writes like an angel, but a grounded one:
I. I recommend it to anyone interested in reading, writing, feminism, stories, or family. She writes like an
angel, but a particularly grounded angel, and a wry and puckish
one. It is always a deep pleasure to be in the company of her mind. This is beautiful writing, clear and deep and necessary as water.
Thought provoking...:
Ms. Le Guin's latest collection of essays and "nonfictive" writings looks like one of those books that is dull, scholastic, dry, and unentertaining. But... I don't think she can write anything in those four modes. Although some of the topics look unapproachable (anyone up for counting the number of stressed syllables in "The Three Little Bears"?) it is her craft as a writer that infuses even minute themes with that elusive "readability". I read even the most esoteric of the bits here. Like her... more info
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