How Novels Work

How Novels Work

Drawing on his weekly <em>Guardian</em> column, "Elements of Fiction," John Mullan offers an engaging look at the novel, focusing mostly on works of the last ten years as he illuminates the rich resources of novelistic technique.<br><br>Mullan sheds light on some of the true masterworks of contemporary fiction, including Monica Ali's <em>Brick Lane</em>, J.M. Coetzee's <em>Disgrace</em>, Don DeLillo's <em>Underworld</em>, Jonathan Franzen's <em>The Corrections</em>, Mark Haddon's <em>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time</em>, Patricia Highsmith's <em>Ripley under</em> <em>Ground</em>, Ian McEwan's <em>Atonement</em>, John le Carré's <em>The Constant Gardener</em>, Philip Roth's <em>The Human Stain</em>, Jonathan Safran Foer's <em>Everything Is Illuminated</em>, and Zadie Smith's <em>White Teeth</em>. He highlights how these acclaimed authors use some of the basic elements of fiction. Some topics (like plot, dialogue, or location) will appear familiar to most novel readers, while others (meta-narrative, prolepsis, amplification) will open readers' eyes to new ways of understanding and appreciating the writer's craft. Mullan also excels at comparing modern and classic authors--Nick Hornby's adoption of a female narrator is compared to Daniel Defoe's; Ian McEwan's use of weather is set against Austen's and Hardy's.<br><em></em> How Novels Work explains how the pleasures of novel reading often come from the formal ingenuity of the novelist, making visible techniques and effects we are often only half-aware of as we read. It is an entertaining and stimulating volume that will captivate anyone who is interested in the contemporary or the classical novel.