The Art of Time in Fiction As Long as It Takes

Fiction imagines for us a stopping point from which life can be seen as intelligible," asserts Joan Silber inThe Art of Time in Fiction. The end point of a story determines its meaning, and one of the main tasks a writer faces is to define the duration of a plot. Silber uses wide-ranging examples from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chinua Achebe, and Arundhati Roy, among others, to illustrate five key ways in which time unfolds in fiction. In clear-eyed prose, Silber elucidates a tricky but vital aspect of the art of fiction.Joan Silberis the author of six books of fiction, includingThe Size of the World. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City. Fiction imagines for us a stopping point from which life can be seen as intelligible," asserts Joan Silber inThe Art of Time in Fiction. The end point of a story determines its meaning, and one of the main tasks a writer faces is to define the duration of a plot. Silber uses wide-ranging examples from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Chinua Achebe, and Arundhati Roy, among others, to illustrate five key ways in which time unfolds in fiction. In clear-eyed prose, Silber elucidates a tricky but vital aspect of the art of fiction. The Art of Time in Fictionis part ofThe Art ofseries, a new line of books by important authors on the craft of writing, edited by Charles Baxter. Each book examines a singular, but often assumed or neglected, issue facing the contemporary writer of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.The Art ofseries means to restore the art of criticism while illuminating the art of writing. Of the series, Baxter writes, "The Art Ofseries is meant to restore criticism as an art, with writers examining features of their craft in lively and colorful prose." Praise for Joan Silber: "Silber's writing has a clean, brisk authority that doesn't linger to congratulate itself over either its insight or its wonderful details."--The Believer