13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley - 2005 - 569 Pages

 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley is a marvelous account of the history of the novel as an art form and a very instructive account of how novelists make the form work.  She includes at the conclusion detailed comments on 100 novels.  I have read about half of them and have now added several to my Amazon Wish List,

"From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres comes an essential guide for writers and readers alike: an exhilarating tour through one hundred novels that "inspires wicked delight.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

From classics such as the thousand-year-old Tale of Genji to fiction by Zadie Smith and Alice Munro, Jane Smiley explores the power of the form, looking at its history and variety, its cultural impact, and just how it works its magic. She invites us behind the scenes of novel-writing, sharing her own habits and spilling the secrets of her craft, and offering priceless advice to aspiring authors. Every page infects us anew with the passion for reading that is the governing spirit of this gift to book lovers everywhere." From the publisher 

Smiley employs wide ranging literary history, insightful criticism and autobiographical details of her own career in a book anyone who reads novels with more than just passing time in mind will be very glad they read.

Jane Smiley is the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of more than ten novels as well as four works of nonfiction, including a critically acclaimed biography of Charles Dickens. She is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for her novel A Thousand Acres, and in 2001 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in northern California.

Mel Ulm

Perestroika in Paris:A Novel by Jane Smiley- 2020

 Perestroika in Paris : A Novel by Jane Smiley - 2020 - 267 Pages- A Fable of a Horse, a Dog, a Raven and a Rat in Paris in 2004

This is part of my Participation in Paris in July 2023

https://wordsandpeace.com/

"captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animals—and a young boy—whose lives intersect in Paris in this "feel-good escape” (The New York Times).

Paras, short for "Perestroika," is a spirited racehorse at a racetrack west of Paris. One afternoon at dusk, she finds the door of her stall open and—she's a curious filly—wanders all the way to the City of Light. She's dazzled and often mystified by the sights, sounds, and smells around her, but she isn't afraid.

Soon she meets an elegant dog, a German shorthaired pointer named Frida, who knows how to get by without attracting the attention of suspicious Parisians. Paras and Frida coexist for a time in the city's lush green spaces, nourished by Frida's strategic trips to the vegetable market. They keep company with two irrepressible ducks and an opinionated raven. But then Paras meets a human boy, Etienne, and discovers a new, otherworldly part of Paris: the ivy-walled house where the boy and his nearly-one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother live in seclusion.

As the cold weather nears, the unlikeliest of friendships bloom. But how long can a runaway horse stay undiscovered in Paris? How long can a boy keep her hidden and all to himself? Jane Smiley's beguiling new novel is itself an adventure that celebrates curiosity, ingenuity, and the desire of all creatures for true love and freedom" - from the Publisher

In April I read a short story by Jane Smiley, "The Hillside"

Here are a portion of my remarks:

The Hillside" is kind of like a post apocalyptic fairy tale in which humans have been reduced to an uncivilised states supervised by intelligent animals. The setting is far in the future."Many younger horses refused to believe that there had ever been all-knowing and all-powerful humans who could rule horses, or cats, or fly through the air or destroy everything around them. They laughed at the old believers.

When I saw that her best selling novel Perestroika in Paris, also a Fable focusing on animals was for sale for $2.95 I acquired it. (The sale is over, it is now $13.95)

I found this work entertaining and gave me a feel for Paris from an animals point of view. (Cat lovers like me will not like how cats are treated,ok we do see them from a rat's point of view.)

Some Parisians are nice to the dog, kind of the brains of the group, others are potentially dangerous. 

I enjoyed this book.  

Jane Smiley is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and, most recently, The Last Hundred Years Trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. She is also the author of several works of nonfiction and books for young adults. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has also received the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature. She lives in Northern California 

Mel Ulm

The Hillside by Jane Smiley - A Short Story- 16 Pages

 "The Hillside" by Jane Smiley - A Short Story- 16 Pages - An Amazon Orginal Short Story

Yesterday, I am a bit embarrassed to acknowledge, I had never heard of The Pulitzer Prize winning author Jane Smiley. Now with this delightful story I found myself adding her works to my Amazon Wish List.

"The Hillside" is kind of like a post apostolic fairy tale in which humans have been reduced to an uncivilised states supervised by intelligent animals. The setting is so far advanced in the timeline of this alternative world that the legends that humans once dominated over animals, rode horses, and were the beings who created the debris of Lost cities are regarded as completely preposterous.

"Many younger horses refused to believe that there had ever been all-knowing and all-powerful humans who could rule horses, or cats, or fly through the air or destroy everything around them. They laughed at the “old believers”—all you had to do was look at a human, run after a human, give a human a little kick and knock it over, and it was evident that the Great Human Age was purely imaginary. Far easier to look at humans and see why they were reviled outcasts in this long valley, and why the small band that still remained had to be closely monitored by young mares like High Note.."

Dogs were all killed off long ago as servants of humans. Cats insisted they were just taking advantage of the stupid humans.

A lot of animals want all humans exterminated.

"The inquiry was part of a larger case: the Congress of Animals (representing not only bears, cats, horses, and rats, which High Note had seen, but also gorillas, bison, antelopes, crocodiles, and other animals that High Note had never seen) had declared that humans, as a danger to the planet, must be exterminated once and for all, no exceptions. The crime and the danger was that humans in another district had harnessed fire."

The plot turns on High Notes emotional involvement with a human female, Plucky, she has observed in her work.

"The Hillside" was a tremendously enjoyable story. It also might make you think about the nature of hatred, of human destruction and enslavement of billions of animals.  

I am hoping others can suggest where I should proceed on in Jane Smiley 

Jane Smiley is the author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel A Thousand Acres. The recipient of the O. Henry Award and the Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature, Smiley has published her work in the New Yorker, Elle, the New York Times, and Harper’s. She lives in California.

Mel Ulm