Eschewed Obfuscation

I Capture the Castle
by Dodie Smith
343 pages (trade paperback)
Genre: Fiction/Literary/YA

Over winter break, my friend and I (both shameless English geeks) decided to exchange book "assignments." She chose this (and I assigned her Tigana, to share the joy of GGK's prose). While our tastes differ dramatically--she disdains most fantasy, for one--I trust her judgment to a certain extent and I'm glad I had the chance to read I Capture the Castle.

Cassandra Mortmain lives in old Belmotte Castle with her sister Rose, her brother Thomas, her kind but outrageous stepmother Topaz, their steadfastly devoted servant Stephen, and her writer father--who produced one great work, Jacob Wrestling, years ago and hasn't written anything since. When Simon and Neil Cotton arrive from America (the story is set in England)--Simon has inherited Scoatney estate, which includes Belmotte--the Mortmain family changes for better and for worse. This is the story of Cassandra, told by her in three unique journals; but it's also the story of writing. Cassandra begins writing in an exercise book in order to teach herself how to write, and throughout the story her father is a shadowy background figure struggling (or in denial against) his writer's block.

This novel is old and obscure, but it deserves to be better known. Cassandra's voice is charming and the diary format works perfectly--I love the metatext especially, where Cassandra writes about writing, metaphor, inspiration, and creation. She feels young and old simultaneously, just as Simon says more than once. Certain parts were questionable--I didn't understand exactly why her father had writer's block for so long--but overall there were many other parts that I loved. The ending is bittersweet and wrenching (quite an open invitation for fanfiction); Cassandra's last journal entry is realistically abrupt, because she has truly grown up. At heart, this is a classic coming-of-age story.

Despite being purely "literary" fiction without a speculative element in sight, I quite enjoyed I Capture the Castle and recommend it to anyone fond of YA, or who has an interest in the unexpected details of writing.

Writing the Short Story: A Hands-On Program
by Jack M. Bickham
213 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Nonfiction/Writing

I had this book checked out from the library for almost six months and never finished it. I'm sure that the Map works for many writers, but I'm not one of them--I did try his index card system, and it was such a chore that I couldn't finish. Writing is supposed to be fun. Perhaps it will appeal to the more methodical, or to those who have trouble finishing a short story.

The Time-Out sections were useful, but I can't say the same for the rest of the book. Nevertheless, not really Bickham's fault, except maybe for being convinced that his is the only long-term successful way to write.

And that's all I have to say.

Genre: Nonfiction/Writing
87 pages excluding appendix, 159 pages including appendix (trade paperback)

I picked this book up at the school library while searching for the MLA citation handbook--it looked interesting and helpful. Sadly, I really only got two worthwhile exercises out of the entire thing, and I had to deal with Allen's pretentious prejudice against genre writers the whole time. Just a few aggravating quotes: "This book needs customers to buy it, and the publisher and author are just as willing to accept money from deadwood, nonreading writers as we are from writers with some potential." [6] For love of the God that I don't believe in, if you dislike reading, why are you even talking a writing class or reading a how-to book on writing? (That quote was NOT sarcasm in context, by the way.)

Also: "Real writers buy books." [11] So "real writers" can't be poor and choosy about what they spend their hard-earned money on? Allen insinuates that people who make good use of the library are destroying the publishing industry and, of course, can't ever be real writers. Then he implies that "pop fiction" (genre) authors aren't "serious writers" [73] and don't write anything "that makes the world a more interesting place and makes people think something they haven't thought before." [74] Apparently Allen is under the impression that all genre fiction follows generic formulas. Perhaps if he ever bothered reading some decent fantasy or sci-fi, he'd actually know what he was talking oh-so authoritatively about.

And I didn't even write up all my notes, since some of them (like being annoyed at the appendix) are just personal quirks.