Nothing seems to have been as much value to the aspiring author than reading. Not news, is it? Sometimes the reading inspires better writing or more courageous writing, or maybe it provides useful examples of how and what NOT to write.I just read Alice Hoffman's latest, The Third Angel. Anyone interested in fiction should take a look, unless, of course there seems no need to spur imagination. For a serious writer to find so many ways to engage the unacknowledged fairy tale yen in all of us is one of this writer's greatest talents. She manages to make the fantastic acceptable to the non-fantasy reader, and to make the fringes of actuality fit perfectly well into the truth of her perceptive, sympathetic, honest characterizations. And she can make her reader's eyes fill with tears while doing it. She makes everything she writes about believable. A consummation devoutly to be wished.
Labels: Alice Hoffman, Good reading, reality vs. fantasy, The writing life
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