Searching and erudite new essays on writing from the author of
Burning Down the House.
Charles Baxter's new collection of essays, Wonderlands, joins his
other works of nonfiction, Burning Down the House and The Art of
Subtext. In the mold of those books, Baxter shares years of wisdom and
reflection on what makes fiction work, including essays that were first
given as craft talks at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.
The essays here range from brilliant thinking on the nature of
wonderlands in the fiction of Haruki Murakami and other fabulist
writers, to how request moments function in a story. Baxter is equally
at home tackling a thorny matter such as charisma (which intersects with
political figures like the disastrous forty-fifth US president) as he is
bringing new interest to subjects such as list-making in fiction.
Amid these craft essays, an interlude of two personal essays--the story
of a horrifying car crash and an introspective "letter to a young
poet"--add to the intimate nature of the book. The final essay reflects
on a lifetime of writing, and closes with a memorable image of Baxter as
a boy, waiting at the window for a parent who never arrives and filling
that absence with stories. Wonderlands will stand alongside his prior
work as an insightful and lasting work of criticism.
