Don Quixote Meets the Mob: The Craft of Fiction and the Art of Life
by Susan Taylor Chehak
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Xlibris: August 2000. Trade paperback: 245 pages. ISBN-10: 0-7388-2476-3 Suggested retail price: $16.00 (US) Tags: artists; lifestyle; Writing Tactical strength: [6/10] |
Based on the subtitle, you might think that Chehak wants to provide an all-in-one guide to writing and living as a writer. But after a fairly long setup, she tells us that
I don't think I can actually teach anyone how to write fiction, any more than I think that fiction can teach anyone how to live. But what I can do, and what it can do, finally, is lead the way toward beginning to understand just what might be involved. (100)
Following this statement, Chehak describes some fundamental concepts of fiction writing similar to what you would find in almost any other how-to-write books, an overview of story arcs, setting, character, point of view, and dialogue. You would probably get a better understanding of the basic elements of fiction from a Freshman literature class, but you don't get too bored because Chehak generously peppers the text with interesting personal stories that illustrate her points.
But the meat of Don Quixote Meets the Mob comes in part two: The Art of Life. Chehak philosophically muses about fiction's role in the lives of both readers and writers, augmented again with personal anecdotes. She describes her view that many people live their own lives not in reality, but in some sort of personal fiction conglomerated from books, TV, experience, and imagination -- that people see themselves as the hero of some grand epic novel or action movie, as a Don Quixote battling against modern forces of evil such as the mob.
Part two provides so much food for thought, that part one in comparison looks like a left-over bacon and liver appetizer that has survived uneaten after an all-night party. In place of discussions about third-person limited point of view, I would much rather have read more of Chehak's views on the subversive role of fiction in shaping reality.
