Except When I Write: Reflections of a Recovering Critic

I never think except when I sit down to write. - Attributed to Montaigne by Edgar Allan Poe From Montaigne in the sixteenth century to Orwell Eliot and Trilling in the twentieth the best literary essayists combine a gift for observation with an abiding commitment to books. Although it may seem that books are becoming less essential and that a revolution in sensibility is taking place the essays of Arthur Krystal suggest otherwise. Companionable without being chummy engaged without being didactic erudite without being stuffy he demonstrates that literature even in the digital age remains the truest expression of the human condition. Covering subjects as diverse as aphorisms dueling the night and the 1960s the essays gathered here offer the common reader uncommon pleasure. In prose that is both vibrant and elegant Krystal negotiates among myriad subjects-from historical writing as exemplified by Jacques Barzun to the art of screenwriting as not so happily represented by F. Scott Fitzgerald. His cardinal rule as a writer? William Hazlitt's Confound it man don't be insipid. No fear of that. Except When I Write is thoughtful in the most joyful sense-brimming with ideas in order to give us the flow and cadence of someone actually thinking.

I never think except when I sit down to write. - Attributed to Montaigne by Edgar Allan Poe From Montaigne in the sixteenth century to Orwell Eliot and Trilling in the twentieth the best literary essayists combine a gift for observation with an abiding commitment to books. Although it may seem that books are becoming less essential and that a revolution in sensibility is taking place the essays of Arthur Krystal suggest otherwise. Companionable without being chummy engaged without being didactic erudite without being stuffy he demonstrates that literature even in the digital age remains the truest expression of the human condition. Covering subjects as diverse as aphorisms dueling the night and the 1960s the essays gathered here offer the common reader uncommon pleasure. In prose that is both vibrant and elegant Krystal negotiates among myriad subjects-from historical writing as exemplified by Jacques Barzun to the art of screenwriting as not so happily represented by F. Scott Fitzgerald. His cardinal rule as a writer? William Hazlitt's Confound it man don't be insipid. No fear of that. Except When I Write is thoughtful in the most joyful sense-brimming with ideas in order to give us the flow and cadence of someone actually thinking.

Alternative names:

• ISBN Except When I Write ( Reflections of a Recovering Critic ) book English Paperback 224 pages
• ISBN Except When I Write ( Reflections of a Recovering Critic ) book English Paperback 224 pages