Meredith's Reviews > Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction

I started reading this book in one location and finished it in another. Soon after starting it, I anticipated that it was going to be a "fun read," since I recognized many lessons as existing in some form in other books I've read. This assumption misled me into thinking I could read the book for enjoyment alone. I read at least one-fourth of the book that way and then put it down while I changed my location (from FL to ME).

In Maine, I picked the book up again, but my bookmark had fallen out. When I couldn't identify my place, I started reading again from the beginning, this time more carefully. This time I picked up on the nuances that differentiate this book from anything I thought I'd read before. Now finished, I count fifty-four sticky flags by sentences and paragraphs I will revisit for reassurance, for laughs, for rethinking, for reminding.

Having experienced both the editing life and the writing life, I enjoyed identifying with both authors (Kidder and Todd) throughout the book, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively, but always strongly. They have had an unusual (as Todd notes, perhaps unique) writing/editing relationship, and the evidence of that, both in what they choose to say and how they say it, makes their book special indeed.

Why four stars, not five? I admit to being torn, and worry that a writer's and/or an editor's snit is working inside me to prevent adding that last star. But maybe it's more serious, more justifiable than a snit. I haven't read others' reviews yet, and doing so will help me figure this out. In any event, a very good book!