NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Booker Prize–winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December comes a literary master class on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves—and our world today.“One of the most accurate and beautiful depictions of what it is like to be inside the mind of a writer that I’ve ever read.”—Parul Sehgal, The New York TimesFor … read.”—Parul Sehgal, The New York Times
For the last twenty years, George Saunders has been teaching a class on the Russian short story to his MFA students at Syracuse University. In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, he shares a version of that class with us, offering some of what he and his students have discovered together over the years. Paired with iconic short stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, the seven essays in this book are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it’s more relevant than ever in these turbulent times.
In his introduction, Saunders writes, “We’re going to enter seven fastidiously constructed scale models of the world, made for a specific purpose that our time maybe doesn’t fully endorse but that these writers accepted implicitly as the aim of art—namely, to ask the big questions, questions like, How are we supposed to be living down here? What were we put here to accomplish? What should we value? What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?” He approaches the stories technically yet accessibly, and through them explains how narrative functions; why we stay immersed in a story and why we resist it; and the bedrock virtues a writer must foster. The process of writing, Saunders reminds us, is a technical craft, but also a way of training oneself to see the world with new openness and curiosity.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a deep exploration not just of how great writing works but of how the mind itself works while reading, and of how the reading and writing of stories make genuine connection possible.
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Well, anyway, according to George, he wasn’t trying to write a book about writing as much as mentor writers by writing a book that shared his experiences with seven short stories. By doing so, he hoped any students might remember or recognize something they already understand or even resist his insights and carve out some iconic and, perhaps, defendable space. He does this, at times, brilliantly.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain is a beautifully written conversational lecture book that makes you feel like you are sitting in on his classes. In between (and sometimes during) seven stories — by Checkhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol — Saunders shares what he has tried to impart to students over the years. While there are times the book meanders far afield, cutting any of it would be a loss.
I was especially fond of how he breaks down In The Cart by Anton Chekhov, alternately between the story and his notes on the story a few pages at a time. Doing so gave him room to point out any number of instances to say “look at this” and “look at that” and “look what he did over here.” I’m not sure every reader appreciates it, but I certainly did — so much so I almost felt cheated having to read the other six stories in entirety before reading his notes (although it might have ruined one or two of them had he kept it up).
By the end of it, however, I think many people will come away better writers (and if not, have a better understanding of why they like some stories or books better than others) after reading A Swim. By studying these Russians with him, we come away with a great deal of knowledge, ranging from the idea that a great story is a “continual system of escalation” in the first story to another idea that it is possible to deliver a dual ending, whereby readers can easily argue their interpretations. I love that.
In sum, this book is a delight and has immediately become one of my favorite books on writing, easily on par with online classes I’ve enjoyed from Walter Mosley and Joyce Carol Oates. More than he promises, A Swim serves up affirmations, dismissals, and discoveries that will make you want to be a better writer and find yourself a little more pointed on why some stories and novels don’t measure up. I highly recommend to anyone writing, studying, or reading short fiction. A Swim has certainly influenced my work along the way.
I requested this from the library after hearing the beginning of Ezra Klein’s interview with Saunders. (I stopped because they were going to spoil “The Master and the Man” for me. 😉 )
This book is a nicely packaged docent tour: an introduction to–and explanation of–a curated selection of Russian short stories from a serious writer who doesn’t take him self too seriously.
Granted, this isn’t light bedtime reading. It’s more like taking a class from Saunders at Syracuse. But it is funny and insightful, and might be (in my opinion) a “must read” for aspiring writers trying to find their voices, or readers trying to explain why some fiction works or doesn’t work for them.
Now I need a taste of Sanders’ own fiction.
Brilliant book! Gives you the opportunity to read some of the Russian classics and then have a learned professor take you through what he thought about the writing, why the stories are as they are, what the author was intending. Just a brilliant book for that – but Saunders also gives us writers a masterclass in story structure and compelling editing. Really enjoyed reading this.
This is nonfiction mixed with fiction. Saunders uses great Russian short stories to illustrate the way he teaches creative writing.
George Saunders masterfully breaks down the experience of the writer, through an analysis of Russian short stories. I’ve read many craft books, and I’ve rarely felt so aligned and encouraged as a writer. This is right up there with Stephen King’s “On Writing.”