Why do novelists use "________" in place of a character's name? [more inside]
posted on Aug 11, 2008 - 10 answers

I'm reading Richard Ford's A multitude of sins short stories collection, and I find it rather dull... (less powerful Raymond carver to me) but it seems that he's considered as a "master of the short story" (Esquire), "one of the country's best writers" (San Francisco chronicle)... Could you give me elements to modify my judgement ?
posted on Aug 10, 2008 - 8 answers

I am trying to get a better understanding of Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" **Spoiler Alert** [more inside]
posted on Jul 28, 2008 - 13 answers

What one book will allow others to gain the truest insight into the soul of each city or region [more inside]
posted on May 6, 2008 - 16 answers

What is the 19th Century illness that disfigures Esther Summerson of Dicken's Bleak House? [more inside]
posted on Jan 6, 2008 - 9 answers

Literature filter: Novels in the form of a first-person diary (day-by-day entries, or entries set against calendar dates). Can you name any good examples, particularly contemporary? I'm aware that it was relatively common format in earlier novels (for example, Dracula). [more inside]
posted on Dec 12, 2007 - 42 answers

I've just finished my first novel, now how do I revise this thing? [more inside]
posted on Sep 26, 2007 - 17 answers

Anybody know any good novels either about or a good chunk of which is set in the Caribbean? [more inside]
posted on Mar 21, 2007 - 40 answers

Everybody hates this, but I need help identifying a book so I can "rebuild" a preteen, YAL library... [more inside]
posted on Jan 5, 2007 - 11 answers

Has Finnegans Wake ever been translated? How?
posted on Oct 20, 2006 - 36 answers

Has anyone vastly improved -- or just changed -- someone else's already published writing by editing? [more inside]
posted on Aug 30, 2006 - 25 answers