Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction (Expanded)
Graywolf reissues one of its most successful essay collections with two new essays and a new foreword by Charles Baxter
As much a rumination on the state of literature as a technical manual for aspiring writers, Burning Down the House has been enjoyed by readers and taught in classrooms for more than a decade. Readers are rewarded with thoughtful analysis, humorous one-liners, and plenty of brushfires that continue burning long after the book is closed.Earn by promoting books
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Charles Baxter is the author of ten books, including The Feast of Love, a finalist for the National Book Award, and The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot. He lives in Minneapolis.
"[The book] is a pleasure to read, and it performs an important function--by mucking around in the problems that plague contemporary fiction, Burning Down the House may spur both readers and writers first to a recognition of guilty complicity and then to constructive thought." --The New York Times Book Review
"The most pleasurable and instructive book on the craft since John Gardner's The Art of Fiction." --City Pages
"Baxter displays his characteristic wit and intelligence as he muses about the influence of culture and politics on the art of storytelling." --Ploughshares
