{"product_id":"serious-noticing-selected-essays-1997-2019-9781250785701","title":"Serious Noticing: Selected Essays, 1997-2019","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe definitive collection of literary essays by \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e's award-winning longtime book critic\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEver since the publication of his first essay collection, \u003ci\u003eThe Broken Estate\u003c\/i\u003e, in 1999, 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTogether, Wood's essays, and his bestselling \u003ci\u003eHow Fiction Works\u003c\/i\u003e, 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 \u003ci\u003eSerious Noticing\u003c\/i\u003e, Wood collects his best essays from two decades of his career, supplementing earlier work with autobiographical reflections from his book \u003ci\u003eThe Nearest Thing to Life\u003c\/i\u003e and recent essays from \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e on young writers of extraordinary promise. The result is an essential guide to literature in the new millennium.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJames Wood\u003c\/b\u003e is a book critic at \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e and the recipient of a National Magazine Award in criticism. He is the author of several previous essay collections, the novel \u003ci\u003eThe Book Against God\u003c\/i\u003e, and the study \u003ci\u003eHow Fiction Works\u003c\/i\u003e. He is a professor of the practice of literary criticism at Harvard University.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Picador USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50494320967954,"sku":"9781250785701","price":25.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_53049c0b-b0c6-435d-9ce6-cd127f367c1a.jpg?v=1730662913","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/serious-noticing-selected-essays-1997-2019-9781250785701","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}