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Imperial Library
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Index
Cover Page
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Introduction
I. The World Is What It Is
The Search for Identity: A Stranger’s Journey
The Idealized Portrait and the Task of the Writer
Writing and Reading Race: Jonathan Franzen, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Shawn Wong
Existential Threats: ZZ Packer’s “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” and Sherman Alexie’s The Toughest Indian in the World
The Student of Color in the Typical MFA Program
Writing Teachers—or David Foster Wallace versus James Baldwin
On Race and Craft: Tradition and the Individual Talent Revisited
II. Story in Fiction
Storytellers: Myths and the Timeless
Discovering Story
Junot Díaz’s “Ysrael”: Voice and Story
The Storyteller as Sadist (or Zuckerman’s Complaint)
Pride Cometh before the Fall: Flannery O’Connor and ZZ Packer
Irreconcilable Conflicts, Lies, and Character
Destroying the Imago of the Protagonist: Sherman Alexie’s “Class”
The A-B-C of Multiple Story Lines: Junot Díaz’s “Fiesta”
The Four Questions Concerning the Narrator: From Conrad’s Marlow to Díaz’s Yunior
III. Narrative and Identity in Memoir
The Four Questions of the Narrator in Memoir: Marguerite Duras’s The Lover and Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club
The Past and Present Self in Memoir: Vivian Gornick’s Fierce Attachments and Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior
Story and Narrative Structure in Memoir
Temporal Narrative and Identity in My Memoirs
The Use of the Reflective Voice in Memoir: James Baldwin and Hilton Als
The Reliability of the Narrator in Memoir
Narrative Drama in Mary Karr’s Cherry and Garrett Hongo’s Volcano
On the Line between Memoir and Fiction
IV. The Writer’s Story
V. S. Naipaul: The Known and the Unknown
The Writer and the Hero’s Journey
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Seven Basic Writing Assignments
Assignment 1: Some Questions about Process
Assignment 2: Exploring Your Identity
Assignment 3: Rewriting a Scene
Assignment 4: Using a Timeline to Revise Narrative Structure
Assignment 5: Using the Storyteller’s Principles—a Basic Checklist
Assignment 6: Write about the Problem
Assignment 7: Finishing the Book and the Hero’s Journey
Bibliography
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