How Literature Saved My Life

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Books & Reading, Essays & Letters, Essays, Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book How Literature Saved My Life by David Shields, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: David Shields ISBN: 9780307961532
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Publication: February 5, 2013
Imprint: Vintage Language: English
Author: David Shields
ISBN: 9780307961532
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication: February 5, 2013
Imprint: Vintage
Language: English

“Reading How Literature Saved My Life is like getting to listen in on a really great, smart, provocative conversation. The book is not straightforward, it resists any single interpretation, and it seems to me to constitute nothing less than a new form.” ––Whitney Otto
 
In this wonderfully intelligent, stunningly honest, painfully funny book, acclaimed writer David Shields uses himself as a representative for all readers and writers who seek to find salvation in literature.
 
Blending confessional criticism and anthropological autobiography, Shields explores the power of literature (from Blaise Pascal’s Pensées to Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, Renata Adler’s Speedboat to Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past) to make life survivable, maybe even endurable. Shields evokes his deeply divided personality (his “ridiculous” ambivalence), his character flaws, his woes, his serious despairs. Books are his life raft, but when they come to feel un-lifelike and archaic, he revels in a new kind of art that is based heavily on quotation and consciousness. And he shares with us a final irony: he wants “literature to assuage human loneliness, but nothing can assuage human loneliness. Literature doesn’t lie about this––which is what makes it essential.”
 
A captivating, thought-provoking, utterly original way of thinking about the essential acts of reading and writing.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

“Reading How Literature Saved My Life is like getting to listen in on a really great, smart, provocative conversation. The book is not straightforward, it resists any single interpretation, and it seems to me to constitute nothing less than a new form.” ––Whitney Otto
 
In this wonderfully intelligent, stunningly honest, painfully funny book, acclaimed writer David Shields uses himself as a representative for all readers and writers who seek to find salvation in literature.
 
Blending confessional criticism and anthropological autobiography, Shields explores the power of literature (from Blaise Pascal’s Pensées to Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, Renata Adler’s Speedboat to Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past) to make life survivable, maybe even endurable. Shields evokes his deeply divided personality (his “ridiculous” ambivalence), his character flaws, his woes, his serious despairs. Books are his life raft, but when they come to feel un-lifelike and archaic, he revels in a new kind of art that is based heavily on quotation and consciousness. And he shares with us a final irony: he wants “literature to assuage human loneliness, but nothing can assuage human loneliness. Literature doesn’t lie about this––which is what makes it essential.”
 
A captivating, thought-provoking, utterly original way of thinking about the essential acts of reading and writing.

More books from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Cover of the book The Passions of Andrew Jackson by David Shields
Cover of the book Blind Rage by David Shields
Cover of the book This Republic of Suffering by David Shields
Cover of the book The Wolves of Midwinter by David Shields
Cover of the book Shiloh by David Shields
Cover of the book Writing in Pictures by David Shields
Cover of the book Waiting for a Goal by David Shields
Cover of the book Raised on Radio by David Shields
Cover of the book More Than You Know by David Shields
Cover of the book The Wasted Vigil by David Shields
Cover of the book The Light of Day by David Shields
Cover of the book The Stories of John Cheever by David Shields
Cover of the book Middle C by David Shields
Cover of the book Seven Gothic Tales by David Shields
Cover of the book The Jews of Silence by David Shields
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy