Talking Horse - Softcover

Malamud, Bernard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0231101856 ISBN 13: 9780231101851

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1997

Synopsis

Designed to provide writers with insights into the way a master thinks about and practices his craft, this collection includes discussions of the novel, the short story, subject matter, work in progress, revision, and the Jewish experience. Malamud also discusses the responsibilities of the writer.

About this title

Review

"I think it hurts a writer," said fiction writer Bernard Malamud, "to have his secrets known--his method of working disclosed while he is still active." Malamud was, according to his colleagues Alan Cheuse and Nicholas Delbanco (the editors of Talking Horse), "resolutely private about the construction of his finished work." Maybe so. But over a lifetime, he wrote an impressive amount of material about his own work, and about fiction in general. Talking Horse collects much of that material--speeches, book introductions, interviews, lesson plans, essays, and more. Included here are notes on The Natural, a defense of fantasy, musings on the great task of embarking on a novel, and a discussion about Jewishness in American fiction. Though most fiction writers see the short story as a warm-up for writing longer fiction, Malamud loved the form. "Within a dozen or few more pages," he said, "whole lives are implied and even understood." He displays here, by turns, endearing humility ("it took years for my work to impress me"), a piercing intellect, disdain for "gossips" who want to know the person behind the fiction, and a strong belief not only that the work must speak for itself, but that there is likely "more to a book or short story than the writer himself knows." A very satisfying collection from a man who liked to claim that "as a writer I learned from Charlie Chaplin." --Jane Steinberg

From the Back Cover

Bernard Malamud, author of such acclaimed novels as The Fixer and The Natural and winner of two National Book Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, is widely recognized as one of the most important and enduring of American writers. Yet because he was intensely private about the way he worked, few readers are aware of his extraordinarily prolific expression of his commitment to the writing process. Including a wealth of never-before-published material, Talking Horse is designed to provide writers with insights into the way a master thought about and practiced his craft. This unique collection includes speeches, interviews, lesson plans, essays, and a series of previously unpublished notes on the nature of fiction, all of which offer an unparalleled look at the writing life. Each section of the book includes a headnote by Nicholas Delbanco or Alan Cheuse.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0231101856
• ISBN 13: 9780231101851
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220
• Editor: Cheuse Alan, Delbanco Nicholas