Sight-Readings: American Fictions

I finally finished this book. I wanted to read it because I heard a review of the book on National Public Radio, and thought it would give me a little insight into writers and writing. Some of the essays are better than others. I still don't know what Margaret Fuller did, though apparently many who knew her were impressed. Ms. Hardwick divides the American writers she reviews into several categories. Mrs. Wharton is in her "Old New York" section. She reviews her books, and the reviews written at the time her books were published. I loved the "Age of Innocence" but it was all down hill from there as far as I am concerned, though Ms. Hardwick defends a few of her other pieces. Ms. Hardwick coves, Cheever, Didion and Roth in "Fictions of America." Since I was never jaded enough to fully appreciate these writers, I was happy to read Ms. Hardwick's views and discover the reasons why I found them off-putting. It's not that they couldn't write, but that I just didn't like what they wrote. On the other hand, I was jaded enough to read a couple of books by John Updike (not Rabbit) and Richard Ford (Independece Day) and though I find them both overgrown adolescents thought her coverage of them was fair. They write well, I'm just tired of men in mid-life crises.She ends with Mary McCarthy and Nadine Gordimer. Gosh the 20th Century was sure awful.

Elizabeth Hardwick is one of the founders of The New York Review of Books, and most of the essays in this collection were first published there. The collection shows Hardwick's impressive range, as she shifts with great aplomb from Edith Wharton and Henry James to contemporary writers such as Joan Didion and Richard Ford.Hardwick's style is unique amongst contemporary critics; dull exposition is nowhere in evidence. It might be said that she writes by flashes of lightning, with each sentence reaching -- sometimes straining -- for large effects worthy of the writer she is considering.Almost all of the eighteen essays included are rewarding, and several, including a lengthy piece on Edith Wharton, are remarkable.This book is highly recommended for those interested in ambitious criticism unfettered by academic jargon.