Full disclosure: John Freeman is a friend. “How To Read A Novelist” by John Freeman is a warmly written review of modern literature. In the last 15 years, John has interviewed the literati and rising lit stars of our generation, a contemporary canon, from Salman Rushdie to David Mitchell to Margaret Atwood to Doris Lessing to Haruki Murakami to Mohsin Hamid and so on. If someone has published something marvelous in the last decade and half, chances are John has met its author on intimate and lit...

I am a bit disappointed. Judging by the title, the blurb on the cover, and the excerpts on the back, I thought this book was going to be much more instructive. This book is helpful to writers only in an incidental way. If you're thinking about reading this book, you should know it reads more like a collection of journalistic author profiles than any sort of guide to approaching the texts of various authors. If that sounds okay to you, than you'll enjoy this book.

These essay/interviews provide a great introduction to unfamiliar authors or a more in-depth look at well-known literary giants. Be aware that there are several factual inaccuracies (such as birth years). This book could work as inspiration for writers or a book list for readers.

I really, really enjoyed this book, which is full of short portraits of about 50 authors from interviews that John Freeman has done over the years. Freeman is himself quite an excellent writer, which significantly enhances the experience of learning about the authors in question. I especially enjoyed the interviews of John Irving (one of my favorite authors, although Freeman seems to subtly communicate that he is less than impressed with him) and Susanna Clarke (another favorite - her interview

As someone who is enamored by John Updike, I was pleased to see Freeman's introduction to his collection of author interviews was a memoir about his obsession with John Updike. The essay in its original form, "U and Me: The Hard Lessons of Idolizing John Updike," can be found here on The Believer's website. He shares how Updike's literature shaped his life; to the extent that he purchased every Updike publication, thinking he was studying the characters to learn what "not to do." He also studied...

A very interesting book about the art of understanding the writers' contemporary masterpieces. It can be read very fast or very slow depending on how much research you want to do on a specific writer, but it is funny and witty and an imense source of further reading recommendations. So if you are looking for something to make you more curious about the world of literature, this is the right book. I found out things I didn't know about my favourite authors or new possible favourite authors and th...

There are real dangers to reading a book like this - the biggest being the length that your TBR can grow to. I have taken an oath to not make my TBR any longer than it is - so I have had to add a new exclusive shelf just for the books I want to read from this book - And NOOOOOO this is not cheating. I am sitting with bated breath waiting for the first of these to arrive but lets get back to this book.I am not sure it gives me great tips on writing or literary style there are some interesting quo...

This fun and informative collection of author interviews hit my sweet spot. John Freeman introduces each author interview with an insightful summary of the author's work to date, and the essays are as diverse as the people being interviewed. The essays are short, but this is not a book to read in one sitting. Dip in and out. Read up on your fave authors first, or start at with authors new to you. This is a book I will certainly dip into again. Most of the authors interviewed were not new to me,

Entertaining and useful book of short pieces about well-known writers. or full review go to http://thebooksmithblog.wordpress.com

Was my "to-read" list expanded thanks to this book? Obviously.I gained insight into a lot of authors I knew in these short interviews, and I also learned about authors who might not have been on my radar and who I'm now eager to check out.

This collection was not as I had anticipated. I picked up based on the title only, and was expecting a full on overview of whose who in literary fiction in the last 30 years or whatever. Think Wikipedia/ textbook like articles. Turns out they are excerpts from interviews with authors with a brief opening overviews. But no matter, I adored these ... very readable and Freeman's got a knack for turn of phrase. Full disclosure: I read only interviews of authors whose work I was familiar with on some...

How to Read a Novelist is a collection of interviews conducted by John Freeman with a variety of contemporary authors over a period of 10 years. Some of the writers are Haruki Murakami, Aleksandr Hemon, and John Updike. Each interview is preceded by a short introduction describing the writer and his or her works. The interview itself is two or three pages. The focus of the interview is as varied as the writer being interviewed.I found this an ideal book to have around for when I only have a few

This is no James Wood- , or John Sutherland-, or Thomas C. Foster- , or Mortimer Adler-sort of "how to" book. It's a collection of super-short previously-published overviews of 50+ well-known authors' careers attached to re-worked interviews/conversations Freeman has conducted since the early 2000s. It contains standard biographical data that only someone very young and/or completely unfamiliar with contemporary fiction would find new, and much of Freeman's writing was stale, trite, and hackneye...

Useful.

This book was different than I thought it would be. Basically it's a book of author interviews, some much more interesting than others.

I only read the authors that I cared about, so not even all of the ones I've read who appear here. The title suggests, or did to me, that this is a book of essays. The back cover blurb, meanwhile, promises interviews. I think they're best taken as profiles. I swear some of the authors speak fewer than a handful of sentences. Readers will learn things -- like that Ishiguru's pants have creases. To be honest, the most important lesson this how-to book offers is that we shouldn't pay very much atte...

How to Read a NovelistBy John FreemanThe Text Publishing CompanyPaperback RRP $29.95 AUDLike most writers and many readers, I am fascinated by accounts of how other writers work and interviews with writers. This book is one sure to delight anyone interested in books and the process of writing. To my mind this is not a book to pick up and read cover to cover like a novel. I suspect many people will do as I did and turn up favourite authors and writers they admire first. I read the introductory ch...

Finally, finally, finally! A very difficult book to finish. Reading how 53 accomplished novelists being interviewed about, in a nutshell, the outcomes of their hard work, the challenges they went through and the way they handle things, it forced me to think and evaluate. Harder than I usually did, anyway, which is unsurprising considering the number of commercial fictions I tend to pick ;)From this book, I came to these conclusions: One, you need a strong, strong sense of self and an unfailing c...

I was on the fence as I began my journey through this collection of narratives. Maybe I continued because I liked the way the pages smelled - warm, papery, properly LITERARY. The reason for my initial indecision lay in that I wasn't sure if I could relate to the authors featured whose works I'd never read. I wondered if I should only look for Amy Tan and the handful of people whom I knew, and return it all to the library after. As I kept reading (and sniffing the pages), however, I came to find

The writers he got to interview are absolutely 10/10, but feels like you kinda need to skip most of the in between impressions he has in order to keep some fresh space for our own judgement or arguments about what novelists are sharing with the rest of us.I’m positive I might have read the book in the wrong state of mind, but still, feels like there was space for more of the novelists words rather than his insights.