This is a lyrical explosion of a book, a challenge to literature, and particularly to narrative non-fiction, as we know it.
Our books no longer reflect the way we understand our lives, Shields argues. They are not fractured enough, not various and stolen, too hemmed in. We are all of us increasingly hungry for the "real", and have created monuments of commodified irreality in a desperate attempt to find it.
This book is indeed a manifesto in the best sense, a call to action for readers and writers. Shields is demanding reader interaction, greater risk, more serendipity and - as difficult, possibly, to acheive as it is easy to say - more reality in our use of the written word. It's a stirring book full of more questions than answers, and one I'm very excited to have as the topic of a conversation here at the store..
News of Note
The Maltese Falcon
Written by David
Thursday, 25 June 2009
by Dashiell Hammett (Vintage Crime, $12.95)
Don't think that because this book is shelved in the mystery section that low-brow, formulaic, genre fiction is all that awaits you. Dashiell Hammett is the supreme stylist of a very literary breed of detective fiction. I picked up The Maltese Falcon thinking it would be a great mindless pool-side vacation book. What an underestimation! It fit the page-turning bill with a style and sophistication that I didn't expect. There's nothing mindless here.
Don't think that because this book is shelved in the mystery section that low-brow, formulaic, genre fiction is all that awaits you. Dashiell Hammett is the supreme stylist of a very literary breed of detective fiction. I picked up The Maltese Falcon thinking it would be a great mindless pool-side vacation book. What an underestimation! It fit the page-turning bill with a style and sophistication that I didn't expect. There's nothing mindless here.