George Saunders, and Writing Master Craftsmen

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

My favorite professors in college were the ones who weren’t just knowledgeable about their subject, but really passionate about it.

And I feel like I just audited a whole semester’s class with just such a professor after reading a book called A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, in which four Russians give a master class on writing, reading, and life.

It’s by George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo and 10th of December, and he’s taught creative writing for more than 20 years at Syracuse University, and he’s taken what he’s taught students and what he’s learned from them and put some of it into this wonderful volume.

He takes you slowly through some great Russian short stories in translation by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, and he unravels them. He looks under the hood. He pulls them apart to see how and why they work or when they don’t and how they affect us.

And at the beginning of the book, he tells a story of his own. He was writing a story for the New Yorker, and he was going through this really painful edit. And he was feeling more and more insecure.

And so on the phone, he went fishing for a compliment. He said to his editor, but what do you like about the story?

And there was a long pause at the other end, and then his editor said, well, I read a line, and I like it enough to read the next.

And that was it. That was his entire short story aesthetic.

And Saunders says, it’s perfect. He writes, I’ve taken a lot of comfort in this idea over the years.

I don’t need a big theory about fiction to write it.

I don’t have to worry about anything but would a reasonable person reading line four get enough of a jolt to go on to line five?

And another thing I love about this book, Grant, is that he’s so unpretentious.

He presents these discussions with a warmth and a generosity.

And I really appreciate that one of the books he keeps referring to is Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book, because there’s a line in there where the character says, and that’s why I’m bothering telling you so.

And Saunders is constantly asking that question line by line.

Why is this story bothering telling you this?

And the implication is, as a writer, you should be asking yourself this.

Why am I bothering telling the reader this?

Does this line or that line really advance the story and escalate the action?

What parts can you cut out and still have a coherent, effective story?

I just love that advice.

Why am I bothering telling you so?

From Dr. Seuss.

Right.

And it’s not just good writing for fiction.

It’s also good writing for nonfiction.

It works in emails and office memos.

It works when you’re speaking aloud before a crowd.

And I also like the point that you brought up about what gets you to line five is line four being worthy of being read.

Yes.

Because that is sometimes all that’s required.

When I read, sometimes the only thing that keeps me reading a book is that it’s well-written.

I don’t necessarily care about the plot or the author or that it’s a subject matter that appeals to me.

It’s just, oh, wow, this is a tremendous feat.

They have done amazing things with language here.

Martha, this book by George Saunders is called?

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, in which four Russians give a master class on writing, reading, and life.

We will link to this, of course, from our website.

Martha and I are big readers of different kinds of books, and we’re always interested in what you’re reading.

Let us know, words@waywordradio.org, or tell us on the telephone, 877-929-9673.