Additional information
by Douglas Glover (Author)
A practical and illuminating collection of essays on writing and reading fiction, focusing on the relationship between form and theme.
Front Jacket
Why do we read? What do we cherish in a book? What is the nature of a masterpiece? What do Alice Munro, Albert Camus, and the great Polish experimentalist Witold Gombrowicz have in common? In the tradition of Nabokov, Calvino, and Kundera, Douglas Glover's new essay collection fuses his long experience as an author with his love of philosophy and his passion for form. Call it a new kind of criticism or an operator's manual for readers and writers, The Erotics of Restraint extends Glover's long and deeply personal conversation with great books and their authors. With the same dazzling mix of emotion and idea that characterizes his fiction, he dissects narrative and shows us how and why it works, why we love it, and how that makes us human. Erudite and obsessively detailed, inventive, confessional, and cheeky, these essays offer a brilliant clarity, a respite in an age of doubt. They raise the bar.
Author Biography
Douglas Glover has published four novels, five story collections, and three works of nonfiction. His novel Elle won the Governor-General's Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It was adapted for the stage by Severn Thompson and premiered at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2016. His short fiction has appeared in Best Canadian Stories and The Best American Short Stories. He edited the annual Best Canadian Stories from 1996 to 2006. He published the literary magazine Numéro Cinq from 2010-2017.
