Meander, Spiral, Explode

Design and Pattern in Narrative

By: Jane Alison

Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne

Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

"Doctors don't imitate Galen. Why should writers follow Aristotle? Jane Alison in her fresh, original book about narrative is our new Aristotle." (Edmund White, author of The Unpunished Vice: A Life of Reading)

As Jane Alison writes in the introduction to her insightful and appealing book about the craft of writing: "For centuries there's been one path through fiction we're most likely to travel - one we're actually told to follow - and that's the dramatic arc: a situation arises, grows tense, reaches a peak, subsides...But something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculo-sexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Why not draw on them, too?"

W. G. Sebald's Emigrants was the first novel to show Alison how forward momentum can be created by way of pattern, rather than the traditional arc - or, in nature, wave. Other writers of nonlinear prose considered in her "museum of specimens" include Nicholson Baker, Anne Carson, Marguerite Duras, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jamaica Kincaid, Clarice Lispector, Susan Minot, David Mitchell, Caryl Phillips, and Mary Robison.

Meander, Spiral, Explode is a singular and brilliant elucidation of literary strategies that also brings high spirits and wit to its original conclusions. It is a liberating manifesto that says, Let's leave the outdated modes behind and, in thinking of new modes, bring feeling back to experimentation. It will appeal to serious readers and writers alike.

©2019 Jane Alison (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

A Publishers Weekly Pick of Most Anticipated Book of the Season.

A Chicago Review of Books Pick of Best New Book of the Month.

A Nylon Magazine Pick of Great New Books.

Needs to be read many times.

The approach is unusual, grabbing attention for that reason. This is a book that is worth every bit of money and time invested.

intriguing perspective about narrative forms

this is a carefully researched text with tons of amazing ideas and examples about how to form fictional stories!

Maybe changed my writing life

This book scratches an itch I'd been looking for.

All covid shut down I've been devouring books on writing and the writing life. This one needs further exploration! All the other books trumpeted similar techniques and thoughts, this came at the subject in ways I hadn't seen any of the others do.

Hopefully a movement of writers creates a collective and pushes these theories further and purposefully. While she admits most of these patterns come about subconsciously, formed as if by nature, I believe that one could set out to do this on purpose to create a compelling narrative. Hopefully this book starts getting taught in mfa classes and you see people swell around these ideas.

TL;DR

Aristotle's 3 act structure wasn't meant for the novel. There are more varied and better structures to be explored. Look to nature, and find life's patterns.

Interesting

This was very helpful in widening my perspective about non arc story structure. I'll be using alternative structures in future stories.

Interesting, but print highly recommended.

The premise intrigued me, but the examples selected were often so sensational in their themes (sexuality, racism, violence) that it distracted from the discussion of their structure. Several of the analyses did not work well in audiobook form, so I'd highly recommend a print copy to future readers. In general, I found the concepts interesting, but will look for another author's teaching on the subject.

Thought-provoking examination of narrative

This was a really interesting examination of various narrative patterns. Allison uses several literary examples to detail narrative forms other than the dramatic arc and the ways they can be used in story. I was not familiar with most of the stories reviewed, but I think the author did a good job of explaining each example in a way they could be understood.