Summary
Critic James Wood considers the role of humor in fiction, making a distinction between secular comedy (which focuses on the human condition) and what he calls "religious comedy" (which aims to teach a lesson by way of satire or farce). Wood calls on his wide-ranging erudition, examining laughter in writers from Cervantes to Naipaul to Bellow.
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Media Reviews
"A miscellany...-and an unusually rich and satisfying one."
-- Kirkus
"[W]riting with magisterial sweep and terrific intensity, Wood...celebrates the indeterminate voice of comic narrative....His tone ranging from respectful reservation (about J.M. Coetzee) to outright contempt (for Tom Wolfe), Wood hammers vigilantly at the failure of intellectual, cultural and political motives to make good fiction....Most compelling is the way his own style swells and contracts with his subject matter...."
-- Publishers Weekly
"[Wood] has not only a well-tuned ear for prose but a remarkable ability to convey how novelistic language transubstantiates life into literature. He does this, by the way, without resorting either to technical boilerplate or to invocations of cultural prestige. Rather than shaming you with his erudition, he is inclined to share it with you....Wood's essays...vibrate with the difficult, serious pleasure that literature uniquely provides." -- A. O. Scott
-- New York Times Book Review
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
Published date: 2004
Edition: 1th edition
Size: 5 x 8 inches
Weight: 0.8 pounds
Pages: 312
Publisher's Notes
One of the nation's most controversial literary critics serves up twenty-three original, hard-hitting essays on a wide range of subjects, including Shakespeare, Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Bellow, Naipaul, the theater, and religious comedy.
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