Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction

Any writer, anywhere, needs to read this book. I assign it to undergraduate and graduate students alike. Charles Baxter explores essential elements of fiction here, and has some surprising, convincing new ideas. He writes in a witty, reflective, fascinating voice that makes these essays a pleasure to read.Reading this book transforms people's writing, deepening their approach and understanding. Take a look at his ideas about counterpointed characters, or about what replaces the idea of "conflict" in fiction.An amazing, brilliant book.

This is a fascinating and provocative collection of essays on writing and the state of North American literature in general. I admire Baxter's short fiction (in particular); this book not only adds another facet, the essays and his stories resonate in interesting ways.

Interested in writing fiction? Here's a collection of thoughful essays that will pique your imagination, as well as change the way you read fiction. Thoughtful, quirky, obsessive, this collection will intrigue anyone who loves literature.

Charles Baxter is one of our greatest living short story writers and with Burning Down the House, we find out why. This volume of meditations on the state of fiction past, present and future, gives insight to all that is stagnant in today's writing world. But this volume is not a death knell, rather it is a wakeup call to those who have forgotten the wonderful possiblities of fiction. Any writer or serious reader of fiction will cast a freshened eye to the page after reading this book

I have had the amazing fortune to study with Mr. Baxter as his student at the University of Michigan where he is director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing. I have taken classes taught by this man, I consider him a friend. In my humble opinion he is the finest instructor of the craft of writing that I have ever known. On top of that, his fiction is some of the most thoughtful, controlled and refined work that is being produced in the English language, period. Knowing that I would think that anyone with an even remote interest in writing would like to pick his brain. I have had that opportunity (to a limited extent) here at the University. But now, with this wonderful book, beautifully written, anyone can venture into the mind of this master of the craft. It's like having an entire semster of Charlie's best sayings, ideas and thoughts on writing in a nicely bound and clearly written little package. The fact of the matter is that this book goes on a writer's shelf between White's ELEMENTS OF STYLE and Gardener's ART OF FICTION. Like those two masterful volumes this new work is essential to what Charlie fondly calls "A writer's bag o' tricks." The essay RHYMING ACTION, by itself, would be worth the price of the book. In short, the work has become an essential text book for me, filled with both lively wit and precise instruction on not only the craft of a writer, but the life of a writer as well. I cannot stress enough the importance of this book