The Writing Class
| March 31st, 2008As long as I am up, unable now to sleep because of all the excitement, I will also fling out a promotion to all 6 of my readers: Jincy Willett’s new book, The Writing Class is coming out this June. Lucky enough to be an early (more accurate than “advanced”) reader, I can attest to the genius of the book’s perfect mix of dark humor and riveting mystery, but since I have, in saying so, used up my allotment of adjectives and polysyllabic words, please allow me to post the first review I’ve found, from Publishers Weekly:
Can a class of wannabe novelists solve a murder in their midst? That’s the premise of this dark comedy of the absurd from Willett (Winner of the National Book Award), a boisterous satire of pseudointellectuals, impotent writers and the adult extension programs of public universities. The only things Amy Gallup, a once-noted California author, has published in years are blurbs of other writers’ work. Amy’s only income comes from teaching fiction writing to a motley collection of varyingly talented “prepublished” adults. Someone in the class is making threatening phone calls and sending extremely cruel notes to other students. When two of the students are murdered, a deep sense of danger takes hold. Yet the class goes on. Amy’s lectures actually constitute a damn fine guide to writing fiction, while Willett’s prose has sparkling moments (“The line was playful, offhand, the poem itself a smug, imperious cat stretch”). The tension is so strong that readers can hardly resist the temptation to peek ahead and see which student is the killer.
There you have it, folks. Buy it, read it, love it. And, if you haven’t read her others, buy them as well. Don’t make me sic Professor T. on you.
Sounds like just my thing! And I’m looking for diverting reading right now. Of course, I bought a bunch of diverting reading at the beginning of last summer, too, and it’s still sitting on my coffee table. But this sounds MORE diverting.
I’ll add it to the stack.