HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR, by Thomas C. Foster

HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR
by Thomas C. Foster

(Quili/Harper)

In spite of the ridiculous amount of time I spent dipping in and out of this book (let's just say the chestnuts were still roasting on that open fire when I started) I managed to enjoy it. The title may sound like a stiff proposition, but Foster's pretty laid back about the whole thing. He happily acknowledges that a story's got to work first and foremost on the surface or nobody's going to get anything deeper out of it. Or even bother looking, for that matter -- if you need a secret decoder ring to crack the plot, something's amiss. Besides, the point here isn't dissection -- it's about picking up an awareness of literary patterns and trends, and keeping an eye out for those inside jokes, so to speak. There's nifty stuff tucked into the crannies and undercurrents of stories, if you know what to look for. Foster's also got a knack for dishing out quick and dirty plot summaries that let you follow the discussion at hand even if you've never read the book he's spotlighting. I only wish he'd discussed the question of whether the symbolism and allusions and so forth that a savvy reader can extract from a text were put there by a conscious effort on the part of the writer. Because I can tell you there's no way all that stuff is deliberate; it sneaks up on authors, too. I get quite a kick out of the reviewers who claim I used the Perkins doll as a symbol in Miss Spitfire. Heh.