On Becoming a Novelist
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Narrated by:
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Anthony Haden Salerno
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By:
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John Gardner
About this listen
On Becoming a Novelist contains the wisdom accumulated during John Gardner's distinguished twenty-year career as a fiction writer and creative writing teacher. With elegance, humor, and sophistication, Gardner describes the life of a working novelist; warns what needs to be guarded against, both from within the writer and from without; and predicts what the writer can reasonably expect and what, in general, he or she cannot. "For a certain kind of person," Gardner writes, "nothing is more joyful or satisfying than the life of a novelist." But no other vocation, he is quick to add, is so fraught with professional and spiritual difficulties. Whether discussing the supposed value of writer's workshops, explaining the role of the novelist's agent and editor, or railing against the seductive fruits of literary elitism, On Becoming a Novelist is an indispensable, life-affirming audiobook for anyone authentically called to the profession.
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- By: D. T. Max
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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David Foster Wallace was the leading literary light of his generation, a man who not only captivated readers with his prose but also mesmerized them with his brilliant mind. In this, the first biography of the writer, D. T. Max sets out to chart Wallace’s tormented, anguished, and often triumphant battle to succeed as a novelist as he fights off depression and addiction to emerge with his masterpiece, Infinite Jest.
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Max avoids hagiography or a sycophant's biography
- By Darwin8u on 06-11-13
By: D. T. Max
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The Art of Nonfiction
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Rand takes listeners step by step through the writing process, providing insightful observations and invaluable techniques along the way. She discusses the psychological aspects of writing and the roles played by the conscious and subconscious mind. She talks about articles and books, explaining how to select a subject and theme, how to identify your audience, and how to write the first draft.
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Great Content, but the narrator is annoying
- By Ms on 01-26-09
By: Ayn Rand
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How to Write Short
- Word Craft for Fast Times
- By: Roy Peter Clark
- Narrated by: Roy Peter Clark
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In How to Write Short , Roy Peter Clark turns his attention to the art of painting a thousand pictures with just a few words. Short forms of writing have always existed - from ship logs and telegrams to prayers and haikus. But in this ever-changing Internet age, short-form writing has become an essential skill. Clark covers how to write effective and powerful titles, headlines, essays, sales pitches, Tweets, letters, and even self-descriptions for online dating services.
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Ironically long
- By Amazon Customer on 03-14-16
By: Roy Peter Clark
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The Republic of Imagination
- America in Three Books
- By: Azar Nafisi
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favorite novels, she describes the unexpected journey that led her to become an American citizen after first dreaming of America as a young girl in Tehran and coming to know the country through its fiction. She urges us to rediscover the America of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and challenges us to be truer to the words and spirit of the Founding Fathers, who understood that their democratic experiment would never thrive or survive unless they could foster a democratic imagination.
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Love
- By Rebecca on 05-29-16
By: Azar Nafisi
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The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead
- Dos and Don'ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Charles Murray
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling social historian Charles Murray has written a delightfully fussy - and entertaining - book on the hidden rules of the road in the workplace - and in life - from the standpoint of an admonishing, but encouraging, workplace grouch and taskmaster. Why the curmudgeon? The fact is that most older, more senior people in the workplace are closet curmudgeons. In today's politically correct world, they may hide their displeasure over your misuse of grammar or your overly familiar use of their first name without an express invitation. But don't be fooled by their pleasant demeanor....
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Good Book: From one curmudgeon to another
- By DaWoolf on 05-22-14
By: Charles Murray
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A Life Observed
- A Spiritual Biography of C.S. Lewis
- By: Devin Brown
- Narrated by: Jon Gauger
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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A Life Observed tells the inspiring story of Lewis' spiritual journey from cynical atheist to joyous Christian. Drawing on Lewis' autobiographical works, books by those who knew him personally, and his apologetic and fictional writing, this spiritual biography brings the beloved author’s story to life while shedding light on his best-known works.
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A beautifully written remembrance
- By Rob on 02-06-18
By: Devin Brown
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Emerson
- The Mind on Fire
- By: Robert D. Richardson
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie
- Length: 26 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. Now Robert D. Richardson Jr. brings to life an Emerson very different from the old stereotype of the passionless Sage of Concord.
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Finally!
- By Douglas on 08-15-14
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If I Had Lunch with C. S. Lewis
- Exploring the Ideas of C. S. Lewis on the Meaning of Life
- By: Alister McGrath
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Have you ever wondered…whether God exists? whether life has meaning? Whether pain and suffering have a purpose? This audiobook is my invitation to sit down with C. S. Lewis and me to think about some of the persistent questions and dilemmas every person faces in life. We’ll explore Lewis’s thoughts on everything from friendships to heaven, from the reasons for faith to the power of stories.
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A great overview
- By Kevin on 12-31-14
By: Alister McGrath
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Ayn Rand discusses how a writer combines abstract ideas with concrete action and description to achieve a unity of theme, plot, characterization, and style, the four essential elements of fiction. Here, too, are Rand's illuminating analyses of passages from famous writers, rewrites of scenes from her own works, and fascinating rules for building dramatic plots and characters with depth.
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l just love Margaret Atwood.
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This is not the described book.
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This classic and much lauded retelling of Beowulf follows the monster Grendel as he learns about humans and fights the war at the center of the Anglo Saxon classic epic.
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Unselfconscious, powerful narration.
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What listeners say about On Becoming a Novelist
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- mahoneko
- 06-06-15
Great book, slightly irritating narration.
Actual text is excellent of course. Narrator had a very irritating voice, but admittedly did a competent job.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Joshua
- 03-10-15
Entertaining Mixture Of Insight And Opinion
The thing that makes this book so much fun to listen to is also it's greatest flaw: John Gardner was a something of crank. I found myself cycling between thoughts of "Brilliant!" and "Oh, John..." He comes up with such gems as: "It's a law of the universe that eighty-seven percent of all people in all professions are incompetent." "Fools, maniacs, and jabberers are everywhere." and "One should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of editors." Anthony Haden Salerno is pitch perfect in his reading; he gets Gardner's snarky, self-assured tone exactly right. I can't imagine how anyone else could have done it better.
The book itself isn't a writing manual so much as Gardner's thoughts on what makes a writer. What personalities are suited for it, what the aspiring writer will need, how the aspiring writer can get what he or she needs, etc.. Despite his tone and his probably outdated advice on writing classes and publishing, I feel he makes a lot of good points. I don't think that most people would object to the idea that deep art rarely comes from superficial people, or that going into the craft with certain motivations can lead to disappointment. Some of his ideas are strange, and his standards are quite high, but I thought the book overall had an encouraging message. If the reader is seriously inclined to writing, Gardner suggests they give it a shot. As he says: "More people fail at becoming successful businessmen, than fail at becoming artists."
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- Beachy Booky
- 08-18-15
Too intellectual for my pea brain
Would you try another book from John Gardner and/or Anthony Haden Salerno?
I'm sure there's gold in there somewhere, but after three hours of existential meanderings about 'the novelist' as if he were a unique species - a person who allegedly and oft-times turned out to be a people hating misogynists with bad cases of verbal diarrhea, or more unforgivably, word and language obsessed and thus non-connected with the human race and deemed incapable of grasping the essence of a character, blah, blah, blah.... YAWN. The book reads as a professorial diatribe - a slippery exploration of the meaning of becoming a novelist.The elitist intellectual snobbery and constant jabs at the inadequacy and wrongness of woman's writing (mentioned women's magazines, but the sub-text was a slap on romance - IMHO,) I couldn't take anymore. After three hours of this - I quit listening. Sorry Professor Gardner, I'm dropping your boring class.
What about Anthony Haden Salerno’s performance did you like?
Any additional comments?
Narrator: excellent.
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- Joel Jenkins
- 08-15-17
Compelling
Gardner has a dry and engaging humor. Most writers will find at least some of his opinions offensive even while wholeheartedly agreeing with others.
I'm not certain why I find Gardener's books on writing so compelling even while being somewhat ambivalent toward his actual novels.
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- S. Cambria Engstrom
- 02-03-21
insightful and engaging
it is truly a pleasure to listen to John Gardner and his pieces his incorporation of humor while imbuing wisdom and knowledge on the young writer is truly a gift in and of itself.
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- Tyner Gillies
- 04-28-23
Not great
My biggest problem with the book was Gardners hypocrisy. He speaks numerous times about how a person who does certain things is a snob, but constantly speaks poorly of commercial fiction (unless it was Bradbury or Heinlein).
He also descibed bees as "nasty". I cannot trust someone who hates bees.
This book may have been relevant when it was written, but currently it has little bearing on the publishing industry.
This title can be skipped.
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- Eleanor
- 01-14-14
John Gardner on Becoming John Gardner
What would have made On Becoming a Novelist better?
This book (like its author) is very much the product of one particular epoch in literary fiction. There may be some helpful information for the aspiring author in it, if she is equipped to stomach the author's narrow, sexist, and dated opinions on the nature of good fiction. None of its useful bits are so original, however, that a reader couldn't gather them from Stephen King or Sol Stein's much more palatable books on this subject. Die-hard Gardner fans will appreciate this book, but for anyone looking for advice on how to weather the literary climate of this century, I'd recommend picking something else.
What do you think your next listen will be?
The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World.
What about Anthony Haden Salerno’s performance did you like?
Anthony Haden Salerno made this a delightful hate-listen, as the subtle edge in his voice while he read the author's reductive and pretentious diatribes on True Writers Who Suffer and Why Most Fiction is Useless Tripe Written By Cowards made me wonder if the narrator shared my opinion that Gardner was totally that pompous college professor who tries to get into the pants of his clever female students by negging on their short stories.
What character would you cut from On Becoming a Novelist?
John Gardner.
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2 people found this helpful