From Publishers Weekly
NPR listeners know Cheuse as the friendly book commentator who's been a fixture on All Things Considered for two decades; he is also a well-received fiction writer (The Bohemians; The Grandmothers' Club). Over the years Cheuse has consumed untold thousands of books for work, research and pleasure; for this reason if no other it would be interesting to hear what he has to say about the mysterious alchemies of reading and writing. But in this first collection of criticism, Cheuse's "adventures" turn out to be fairly uninspired excursions. Nearly two-thirds of the essays have appeared in other venues, and little has been done to update them or give them a book's coherence. For example, in his opening section, he treats stylistic points in the work of neglected Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier, leaving unexplained what the connection to the surrounding essaysone on pictorial fiction, one on readingmight be. Cheuse's critical prose tends to be a curious hybrid of biography, plot summary and appreciation, occasionally held together by a thin conceptual framework (e.g., "historical truth" or "minimalism"). His essays shy away from a critical standpoint, tending instead to graze around various topics before arriving at a sort of impenetrable nonconclusion ("Writers make narratives that develop over time... all we can do is work with our language and the time it takes to tell it in..."). The best parts of the book are anecdotal, recounting Cheuse's personal journeys as a reader and as a struggling writer; these generously conceived moments will leave readers the more disappointed for what this volume could have been. (May
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Library Journal
The learned, lively, and handsomely crafted essays in this collection revive some neglected authors as varied as the dazzling Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier, the magisterial Tom Wolfe (the elder), and the Russian memoirist Lidiya Ginsburg. Cheuse, a book reviewer for National Public Radio's All Things Considered, unabashedly prefers prose to poetry and finds instruction, impetus for moral growth, and consolation both in epoch-spanning novels and in poignant short stories in which language is sharply trimmed to expose transformative experience. His essays are instructive, his enthusiasm contagious, his views unobjectionable. However, since Cheuse rarely allows for a whiff of the high-octane and shocking strangeness that lends great works their staying power, he skims from frequently fierce books only the mellow, feel-good comforts that one associates with purring cats, decaffeinated tea, and Oprah in the afternoon. Recommended for larger public libraries. Ulrich Baer, New York Univ.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
