Cover Image: What About the Baby?

What About the Baby?

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Member Reviews

It feels sacrilegious to give an author like Alice McDermott such a low rating, but this book fell short of my expectations. I was looking more for tips/suggestions, while this was a philosophical take on fiction writing.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

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Alice McDermott's latest is a love letter to the act of writing, praise to the muse that contains it, caresses on the genii bottle that keeps it safe and frees it when the right words release it. The book is a tender journal of and about the writers she most loves; ones who pop her cork and thrill her with bubbles.

It was a gentle ride through the lands of her thoughts as a reader, the ones that tossed her out when her yearn to write overcame her and she became a different kind of reader entirely - one who wanders into lands that are as yet undescribed, where characters impatiently wait their turn. . . a green room that wonders beyond the act of reading.

Mostly, a come-hither to write, if you will, to the writers who yet haven't.

However, for readers - this is a lovely read for those who appreciate the occasional glance over the cliff, or standing in the spray behind the waterfall, or whose rock-gripping toeholds are all that keeps a body at a hard lean against the breeze while the winking deep dive patiently waits. . . but who finally back away from such seduction to . . . .read.

A sincere thanks to Alice McDermott, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and NetGalley for an arc to read and review.

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In Alice McDermott's What About the Baby? Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction, her love of language and of story shine. She has thoughtful insights into what makes a successful tale (while not being afraid to remind people not to rigidly follow rules, as there are exceptions). Through her annual presentations at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, we have these compiled thoughts, as some began as her formal lectures there. To start, there are chapters on story, sentencing, making connections, editing, and even the connection between faith and literature.

She stresses, for instance, the need to read your work at regular intervals so you can make the connections throughout, ones that unconsciously might be setting themselves up, but will take a close read to tie it all together. Such attention to detail sets apart an ordinary work from one that could be an extraordinary one.

McDermott's excerpts and analyses are thoughtful and engaging, and I enjoyed marking up my digital copy.

(I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.)

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Wise and witty advice from an author who truly understands both the writing process and the reader. I look forward to recommending this to students and staff members who are interested in pursuing a writing career, or simply want to become more familiar with the "story behind" the written word.

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Alice McDermott’s What About The Baby is a collection of essays on the craft of writing that touches upon everything the process, the exercise, and the career demands of those of us to whom it calls. Beginning with a passionate urging by a teacher when she was in primary school, McDermott has built a bestselling career as writer and teacher of novelists. We are treated to a great set of fourteen small lessons on everything from incorporating faith and the personal thematic core in our work to the true instruction of understanding where the sentence and syntax can move from perfection to the meaningless drivel of a phrase that can be both original and immediately cliché at the same moment. This was an excellent masterclass by yet another master writer and teacher, and yet again, I am blown away by the brilliant philosophical and technical advice I found in this collection.

I had many favorite moments in this book – my favorite recurring one was easily her effortless referencing to a broad knowledgebase of other great writers and great works (many of which I have read, but what a treat to come across something you’ve never heard of that a truly great writer has such passion and excitement for in a course such as this). While the whole book was excellent, two essays really stood out to me: the title piece, where we learn how deeply a missed opportunity can become the core of a story when approached the correct way – that backward thinking that ultimately sets a piece apart from its peers in originality. I also really enjoyed ‘Remembrance of Things That Never Happened,’ and we hear about her reverence for Frank McCourt (that we share) in a lecture that she delivered at his first Memorial at the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. The anecdote about what he taught her about her own work during a conversation at Lincoln Center is unforgettable.

A great collection that needs to be visited by anyone who is attempting to enter the profession we would all recommend they stay away from, but also those who love McDermott, great literature, and peeking under the hood of how the authors engine truly runs.

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Gorgeous. This is a book I’ll buy a physical copy of and revisit often. Referencing many passages of different authors and writers and others, McDermott actually expounded on my love for words and sentences and reading. I loved every word of this breathtaking book.

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This was a wonderfully readable and valuable book of writing advice that I felt really lucky to be able to read. I read Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird every few years and I can see this book taking a place next to it on my shelf.

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What about the baby? Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction By Alice McDermott

We learned about ourselves during this unavoidable pandemic. Covid locked us in our homes; most found that 24/7 with our spouses, partners, and children was not paradise and even when we scoped out a room of one’s own, we did not find ourselves fulfilled.

Yet those of us who are passionate readers did the normal thing. We found long wonderful stretches of time to escape into another world, other with a favorite writer of fiction. For me, I raced to the public library just a day before quarantine was declared, and the doors locked. Like stocking the survivor shelter, I had a dozen books checked out and stockpiled.

I suspect several great writers like Alice McDermott were well stocked with journals about writing fiction. Her newest book, “What about the Baby?” shares her wondrous ideas on the art of writing fiction. She illuminates the advice of other: Tolstoy Flaubert, Dillard, O’Connor, etc., she has memorized and taken to heart in her forty years as a writer.

McDermott’s chapter on Faith and Literature was especially personal in that she often writes about characters who are Irish Catholics seeking answers to life’s greatest struggles; just as the writer struggles to tell a story with upmost faith and hope that it will deserve its readers. Her calling to write fiction is undeniable; one this reader is most blessed to read repeatedly.

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I love Alice McDermott’s novels, and this collection of lectures from her years teaching writing at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference was just as pleasurable to read as her fiction. McDermott mixes writing advice from famous writers with her own witty words of wisdom—and lavishly illustrates this advice with excerpted examples from her books as well as those of many other writers—to produce a reading experience that is extremely valuable for the aspiring writer and just plain fun for the avid reader. Loved it and highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

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’I expect the fiction I read to carry with it the conviction that it is written with no other incentive than that it must be written.’

What About the Baby? Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction offers various discourses, lectures, and examinations on writing, the art of it, as well as a glimpse into the life of a writer. It begins by sharing a news story that begins on June 17, 2001 when the lives of three Irish Catholic New York City firemen lost their lives fighting a fire in Astoria, Queens. which prompted her to read ’White Gardens’a short story by Mark Helprin, a fictional tale of a similar event. At the end of sharing that story, McDermott says:

’Language in fiction is obliged to invoke what cannot be said, what Virginia Woolf called in To the Lighthouse “the voice of the beauty of the world.”

’I expect a lot of fiction--of mine and yours and everybody else’s.’

One of the pleasures of being able to read and share our thoughts on books is knowing that others also share theirs. I know, for me, that viewing the thoughts of others, or even seeing that someone is reading a book we loved is a momentary remembrance of a lovely selection, a phrase, a character that we rooted for, or a moment that made our heart soar, or made us smile.

What we read, the best of it, becomes a part of us, and a part of how we view the world. It helps us to understand the lives and tribulations of others, relate to their sufferings, their joys, their failings and successes. It refines our sense of compassion. It helps us, as McDermott says, make sense of life and death.

Several stories, or excerpts from stories, are shared in this collection that offers many different illustrations of fictional stories that meet her expectations. Some by famous authors, and others by lesser known authors. All contain a kind of storyteller’s magic that makes it worth reading, and McDermott shares her thoughts on what she sees as a the ’conjuring’ through words, of a place, the sound of a voice which magically transport us so that we can see and hear and feel it all through the author’s words.

A wonderfully compelling glimpse into a life of writing, a master class on the craft, including excerpts by Woolf, Shakespeare, Morrison, Tolstoy as well as several others. But the heart and soul of this is the joy, and yes the frustrations, of living the life of a writer, and one who appreciates not only the gift-through-work of inspiration, but also the effort. The long hours and seemingly endless revisions which lead to those moments where this gift they have will be shared with the world.

’It is the work of a lifetime.’


Pub Date: 17 Aug 2021

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley, and to Alice McDermott for providing a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

In What About the Baby?, Alice McDermott, a Johns Hopkins University Humanities professor and author of the novel Charming Billy as well as seven other novels, offers essays and wisdom on spirituality and writing.

Much of the book is underpinned by supporting literature, which she cites to bolster each of her writerly dictums. As an avid reader, I loved hearing what everyone from Tolstoy to Billy Collins has to say about the craft of writing. Also as a reader, I had hoped much of McDermott's book would be her own work-- some sections of the book reminded me, a little, of essays I padded with quotations to meet word count. Every work she cites is gorgeous and worth reading in its own right, so I didn't mind (too much), but still.

McDermott being a formidable writer in her own right, my very favorite sections were the ones that sprang from her own experience, not reading log, especially her essays on spirituality and how her Catholicism informs her writing. This is where we get to the meat of what she is trying to say, that what is behind the human experience of the numinous is also the same source for art, including writing.

This is an extremely worthwhile read for anyone who loves reading, loves writing, and wants a deeper, more nuanced understanding of Why Humans Write. It's like having lunch with a brilliant and accomplished writer friend who still manages to be humble and approachable. McDermott doesn't come off even a little snobbish (though she has every reason to be!) but rather cheers on anyone who dares put one writing page in front of another in pursuit of writing.

I would highly recommend this one.

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I believe this book is destined to be a classic, a resource for both writers and readers—for anyone who wants to understand the purpose of fiction, and the way it's best constructed. Also, it concerns what makes fiction work in its glorious variety. McDermott's draws upon her own experience as a novelist and a teacher, but also reports on what other great masters of fiction have to say about process and form. It's a book, too, about faith, and the how the "problems of the human heart in conflict with itself" are at the core of enduring stories. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

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What About the Baby isn’t so much a how-to book as it is a look into the writer’s soul. Sure, McDermott gives a lot of sound advice, but she also gives voice to the thoughts and insecurities every writer experiences. It’s the kind of book writers of all levels of experience will love. As a writer myself, I appreciated her honesty and candor about writing life.

Thanks Netgalley for the advanced read. This is my honest review.

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What a pleasure to get a full class on fiction from a master. Nobody writes like Alice McDermott, and I have not met anyone who doesn't love her books. In addition to writing, she has been a professor in several universities and is currently Professor of Humanities at Johns Hopkins. And yet, she's also got a family. In these essays she explores what fiction means in the greater world, the difficulties of writing it well, and the challenges faced by fiction writers when asked "Is it real? Did this really happen?" The memorist or the creator. Where do writers get their ideas. There are as many answers to these thoughts as there are writers, and here we learn from one of the best.

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Alice McDermott writes for writers and all
who enjoy quality in composing. I can see this book as a night table read as easily as a text for composition courses. Much to enjoy and appreciate!

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McDermott does a lovely job of summarizing her thoughts on literature including thoughts on the past and future.

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