Oversold, May 25, 2000

Also, anyone with a writing background will disagree with many of Kaufman's generalities. He says that one should never ask for a critique of one's work from another writer, because of, among other things, other writers' jealousy of good work. The *day after* I read that, I met with a fellow playwright who gave me two hours of insightful critique on a play I'd just completed. In another place, Kaufman says, "Readers are only conscious of seeing words on a page when the narrative is so boring or so confused that you can't picture it." I can think of James Baldwin and others as counterexamples.

The point is that when you start questioning Kaufman's generalities, he hasn't presented enough material about the craft of writing to make you trust the rest of the book. I can only recommend this book marginally, since some of the material may be useful if only because it reinforces what you've learned elsewhere. But this definitely should not be high on someone's list.

 Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)