The Art of Fiction

This collection of (often very) short essays by David Lodge is an excellent way of looking at various tropes of fiction. It also serves as a nice anthology of some memorable passages in the history of the novel. Mostly novels, at any rate. There are were a few surprises for me here, such as his use of Kundera to illustrate 'magical realism.' I'm not sure how much the Czech emigre would appreciate being put in the same demonic company as Garcia Marquez, though of course he has been put there before. Lodge's point here is well observed, though, as is most everything else he brings up in these pages. His explanation for the innerworkings of Kipling's Mrs. Bathurst is literary criticism at its very best, valuing what is excellent in a writer that is sorely neglected while providing good evidence that this undeservedly so.