“[A] boundlessly inventive look at narrative form… filled with clarity and wit, underlain with formidable erudition.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
For centuries there’s been one path through fiction we’re most likely to travel—one we’re actually told to follow—and that’s the dramatic arc: a situation arises, grows tense, reaches a peak, subsides . . . But something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculosexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Why not draw on them, too?
W. G. Sebald’s Emigrants was the first novel to show me how forward momentum can be created by way of a networking pattern rather than the traditional arc—or, in nature, wave. Other writers have used spiraling shapes, fractals, meanders, radial or explosive shapes . . . all of which have inspired me to explore new, organic ways to experiment, ways I examine through a museum of specimens in Meander, Spiral, Explode.
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Reviews
“Alison’s close readings can be exhilarating. One of her more seductive ideas is the notion of ‘correlations between kinds of stories and certain patterns.'” . . . The fecundity of Alison’s writing is of a piece with her larger mission: to turn narrative theory into a supersaturated mindfuck of hedonistic extravaganza. It is a special kind of literary criticism.” —Katy Waldman, The New Yorker
“Alison’s book is like a cold shower to ward off the standard narrative arc and rewire our mental circuitry to see the patterns of nature in the structure of novels. . . . A playful and exciting book that opens up all sorts of new possibilities for narrative.” —Sarah Boon, Chicago Review of Books
“Doctors don’t imitate Galen. Why should writers follow Aristotle? Jane Alison in her fresh, original book about narrative is our new Aristotle.” —Edmund White, author of The Unpunished Vice: A Life of Reading
“[A] boundlessly inventive look at narrative form . . . filled with clarity and wit, underlain with formidable erudition.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Who knew literary criticism could be so much fun? That’s the impression that lingers after finishing Meander, Spiral, Explode, Alison’s impassioned brief against the dominance of the Aristotelian dramatic arc. . . . A joyous celebration of literature’s robust shape-shifting qualities; a book that will have open-minded readers viewing the next work of serious fiction they encounter with a more discerning eye, ear and mind.” —Harvey Freedenberg, Shelf Awareness
“A wholly original analysis of style . . . [Alison’s] observations of the sensory aspects of literature are indulgent and delectable, and sure to elevate the experience of readers and writers alike.” —Courtney Eathorne, Booklist