The Sincerest Form

It's difficult to believe no one has compiled a text like this for students of writing. It might be because instructors of writing don't know how to teach writing--in particular, prose fiction. Another possibility is that writing teachers don't have much common sense. Perhaps that is why a novelist put together this clever text: samples of major fiction writers with explications on style, vocabulary, voice, tone, structure, character, etc. As for the plethora of rhetorics, guides, handbooks, readers, etc., they are 'not fit for Christian ear to hear" nor the ears of Muslims, Jews, Jains, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. If you are a college student, tell your teacher about this book.

Delbanco takes us into unpopular waters with "The Sincerest Form," but it is very much worth the voyage. Imitation is one of the most effective ways to learn, and this book can guide you where many, perhaps rightly fearful of [...], would be unlikely to take you. In a progression of exercises of imitation and revision, Delbanco shows how much you can learn from, well, from copying others. Incidentally, this is the only required text from one of my college classes that I have actually found useful. I guess that tells you something.