Best Selling Books by James Wood

What makes a story a story? What is style? What’s the connection between realism and real life? These are some of the questions James Wood answers in How Fiction Works, the first book-length essay by the preeminent critic of his generation. Ranging widely—from Homer to David Foster Wallace, from What Maisie Knew to Make Way for Ducklings—Wood takes the reader through the basic elements of the art, step by step. The result is nothing less than a philosophy of the novel—plainspoken, funny, blunt—in the traditions of E. M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel and Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. It sums up two decades of insight with wit and concision. It will change the way you read.

This book recalls an era when criticism could change the way we look at the world. In the tradition of Matthew Arnold and Edmund Wilson, James Wood reads literature expansively, always pursuing its role and destiny in our lives. In a series of essays about such figures as Melville, Flaubert, Chekhov, Virginia Woolf, and Don DeLillo, Wood relates their fiction to questions of religious and philosophical belief. He suggests that the steady ebb of the sea of faith has much to do with the revo- lutionary power of the novel, as it has developed over the last two centuries. To read James Wood is to be shocked into both thinking and feeling how great our debt to the novel is. In the grand tradition of criticism, Wood''s work is both commentary and literature in its own right--fiercely written, polemical, and richly poetic in style. This book marks the debut of a masterly literary voice.

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Wood reads Philip Sidney’s New Arcadia in the light of the ethos known as Philippism after the followers of Philip Melanchthon the Protestant theologian. He employs a critical paradigm previously used to discuss Sidney’s Defence of Poesy and narrows the gap that critics have found between Sidney’s theory and literary practice. This book is a valuable resource for scholars and researchers in the fields of literary and religious studies. Various strands of philosophical, political and theological thought are accommodated within the New Arcadia, which conforms to the kind of literature praised by Melanchthon for its examples of virtue. Employing the same philosophy, Sidney, in his letter to Queen Elizabeth and in his fiction, arrogates to himself the role of court counsellor. Robert Devereux also draws, Wood argues, on the optimistic and conciliatory philosophy signified by Sidney’s New Arcadia.

"[This] novel [tells the story of] a family struggling to connect with one another and find meaning in their own lives"--Amazon.com.

A Passionate, Profoundly Funny First Novel from "the Best Literary Critic of His Generation" (Adam Begley, Financial Times) Thomas Bunting, the charming, chaotic, and deeply untruthful narrator of James Wood''s wonderful first novel, is in despair. His marriage is disintegrating and his academic career is in ruins: instead of completing his philosophy Ph.D. (still unfinished after seven years), he is secretly writing what he hopes will be his masterwork, a vast atheistic project he has privately entitled "The Book Against God." But when his father suddenly falls ill, Thomas returns to the tiny village in the north of England where he grew up and where his father still works as a parish priest. There, Thomas hopes, he may finally be able to communicate honestly with his father, a brilliant and formidable Christian example, and sort out his own wayward life. But Thomas is a chronic liar as well as an atheist, and he finds, instead, that once at home he soon reverts to the evasive patterns of his childhood years—with disastrous results. The story of a husband and wife, a father and son, faith and disbelief, and a hero who couldn''t tell the truth if his life depended on it, The Book Against God is at once hilarious and poignant; it introduces an original comic voice—edgy, elegiac, lyrical, and indignant—and, in the irrepressible Thomas Bunting, one of the strangest philosophers in contemporary fiction.

From The New Yorker''s book critic, "one of the most intelligent and passionate literary critics working today. . . . a masterful ''greatest hits'' collection" (Angela M. Giles, Los Angeles Review of Books ). Ever since the publication of his first essay collection, The Broken Estate James Wood has been widely regarded as a leading literary critic of the English-speaking world. His essays on canonical writers (Gustav Flaubert, Herman Melville), recent legends (Don DeLillo, Marilynne Robinson) and significant contemporaries (Zadie Smith, Elena Ferrante) have established a standard for informed and incisive appreciation, composed in a distinctive literary style all their own. Together, Wood''s essays, and his bestselling How Fiction Works, share an abiding preoccupation with how fiction tells its own truths, and with the vocation of the writer in a world haunted by the absence of God. In Serious Noticing, Wood collects his best essays from two decades of his career, supplementing earlier work with autobiographical reflections from his book The Nearest Thing to Life and recent essays from The New Yorker on young writers of extraordinary promise. The result is an essential guide to literature in the new millennium. "Forensically close readings of the text, pointing out fiction''s innovations and revolutions―the "failed privacies" of Chekhov''s characters, the "unwrapped" consciousness in Virginia Woolf''s novels. . . . a beautiful, moving sense of the stakes of criticism as Wood has practiced it." ―Parul Sehgal, The New York Times Book Review "[Food] has a notable capacity for articulate enthusiasm and a withering tongue to balance it." —Francis Mulhern, New Left Review "Thick with images you can almost reach out and grasp . . . With criticism like this, who needs fiction?" ―Becca Rothfeld, Bookforum

Following The Broken Estate, The Irresponsible Self, and How Fiction Works—books that established James Wood as the leading critic of his generation— The Fun Stuff confirms Wood''s preeminence, not only as a discerning judge but also as an appreciator of the contemporary novel. In twenty-three passionate, sparkling dispatches—that range over such crucial writers as Thomas Hardy, Leon Tolstoy, Edmund Wilson, and Mikhail Lermontov—Wood offers a panoramic look at the modern novel. He effortlessly connects his encyclopedic, passionate understanding of the literary canon with an equally in-depth analysis of the most important authors writing today, including Cormac McCarthy, Lydia Davis, Aleksandar Hemon, and Michel Houellebecq. Included in The Fun Stuff are the title essay on Keith Moon and the lost joys of drumming—which was a finalist for last year''s National Magazine Awards—as well as Wood''s essay on George Orwell, which Christopher Hitchens selected for the Best American Essays 2010. The Fun Stuff is indispensable reading for anyone who cares about contemporary literature.

Everyone knows that Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Is it possible that they have misunderstood the entire concept of the Messiah and his function in God''s spiritual economy? Passages such as Isaiah 53 and Zechariah 13 are viewed as messianic by the Church but has the Church misused them to point to a confused portrait of a man that shouldn''t have applied for the position? Is the New Testament an accurate picture of the events surrounding the times of Jesus or, is it fiction? As a former Christian of 25 years and son of a Southern Baptist minister, James entered a Messianic Jewish congregation to experience the teachings of the Messianic movement. Convinced something was terribly wrong, he left the movement and started studying to find the truth. After five years of intensive study and much prayer, James reveals in simple language how Christians have been lead down a path paved with deceit and contradictions.

In this remarkable blend of memoir and criticism, James Wood, noted contributor to the New Yorker, has written a master class on the connections between fiction and life. He argues that, of all the arts, fiction has a unique ability to describe the shape of our lives and to rescue the texture of those lives from death and historical oblivion. The act of reading is understood here as the most sacred and personal of activities, and there are brilliant discussions of individual works - among others, Chekhov''s story "The Kiss," W.G. Sebald''s The Emigrants, and Penelope Fitzgerald''s The Blue Flower. Wood reveals his own intimate relationship with the written word: we see the development of a provincial boy growing up in a charged Christian environment, the secret joy of his childhood reading, the links he makes between reading and blasphemy, or between literature and music. The final section discusses fiction in the context of exile and homelessness. The Nearest Thing to LifeÊis not simply a brief, tightly argued book by a man commonly regarded as our finest living critic - it is also an exhilarating personal account that reflects on, and embodies, the fruitful conspiracy between reader and writer (and critic), and asks us to reconsider everything that is at stake when we read and write fiction.

In his first memoir, the renowned critic explores his preacher-father’s mysterious decision to desert his own parents and the fallout for their family. He had been, in all the important ways, an impeccable father. And he had been, in all the important ways, a terrible son. When James Wood and his siblings were growing up in the English city of Durham, they confronted a peculiar absence in their family. Their father, Dennis, a mild-mannered zoologist, never spoke of his own parents, and didn’t even seem to know or care if they were alive. How was it that this figure of impeccable rectitude had come to abandon his own father and mother? Was it to please his wife, Sheila, a socially anxious schoolteacher from a higher-class background whose bearing made her children think of Margaret Thatcher? Was it due to Dennis’s own distinct identity or lack of one —so generous and giving that he seemed to lack a “self” in certain crucial respects? And when Dennis left his university job to become a vicar in a rural church and delivered eloquent sermons on the meaning of love and connection, what was he saying—or not saying—about himself and the life he’d led? In this acute, comic, and affectionate memoir, Wood explores the enigma of his father’s identity while also weighing the injuries and ties of class, religion, and family. As the author of How Fiction Works and other classics of contemporary criticism, Wood has shaped our understanding of literary art; here he offers a mystery and a vivid meditation on the slippery foundations of our deepest connections.

No project management training? No problem! In today''s workplace, employees are routinely expected to coordinate and manage projects. Yet, chances are, you aren''t formally trained in managing projects—you''re an unofficial project manager. FranklinCovey experts Kory Kogon, Suzette Blakemore, and James Wood understand the importance of leadership in project completion and explain that people are crucial in the formula for success. Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager offers practical, real-world insights for effective project management and guides you through the essentials of the people and project management process: Initiate Plan Execute Monitor/Control Close Unofficial project managers in any arena will benefit from the accessible, engaging real-life anecdotes, memorable “Project Management Proverbs," and quick reviews at the end of each chapter. If you''re struggling to keep your projects organized, this book is for you. If you manage projects without the benefit of a team, this book is also for you. Change the way you think about project management—"project manager" may not be your official title or necessarily your dream job, but with the right strategies, you can excel.

The Nuttall Encyclopaedia is an early-20th-century encyclopaedia, edited by Rev. James Wood, first published in London in 1900 by Frederick Warne & Co Ltd. It is named for Dr. Peter Austin Nuttall (d. 1869), whose works, such as Standard Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language (published in 1863), were eventually acquired by Frederick Warne, and would be published for decades to come. The encyclopaedia has a strong editorial voice, and concerns itself mostly with people and places. It may be the only printed encyclopaedia that has entries for fictional characters from Charles Dickens'' books, but at the same time lacks entries for fruit. Entries generally are very short. It often reflects the personal bias of the author, and of course views events from its own perspective in time; both aspects can be seen in entries like Dates of Epoch-Making Events.