I, Grape; or The Case for Fiction - EssaysAuthor :
Paperback
Published : Monday 15 March 2021
Description
In fifteen sharply engaging essays, acclaimed novelist and short story writer Brock Clarke examines the art (and artifice) of fiction from unpredictable, entertaining, and often personal angles, positing through a slant scrutiny of place, voice, and syntax what fiction canâ?"and canâ?Ttâ?"do. (â?oVery:A is there a weaker, sadder, more futile word in the English language?â??) Clarke supports his case with passages by and about writers who have both influenced and irritated him. Pieces such as â?oWhat the Cold Can Teach Us,â?? â?oThe Case for Meanness,â?? â?oWhy Good Literature Makes Us Bad People,â?? and â?oThe Novel is Dead; Long Live the Novelâ?? celebrate the achievements of master practitioners such as Muriel Spark, Joy Williams, Donald Barthelme, Flannery Oâ?TConnor, Paul Beatty, George Saunders, John Cheever, and Colson Whitehead. Of particular interest to Clarke is the contentious divide between fiction and memoir, which he investigates using recent and relevant critical arguments, also tackling ancillary forms such as â?ofictional memoirâ?? and the autobiographical novel. Anecdotal and unabashed, rigorous and piercingly perceptiveâ?"not to mention flat-out funnyâ?"I, Grape; or The Case for Fiction is a love letter to and a passionate defense of the discipline to which its author has devoted his life and mind. It is also an attempt to eff the ineffable: â?oThat is one of the basic tenets of this book: when we write fiction, surprising things sometimes happen, especially when fiction writers take advantage of their chosen formâ?Ts contrarian ability to surprise.â??
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