- Published: 1 October 2015
- ISBN: 9780857984074
- Imprint: Vintage Australia
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 352
- RRP: $19.99
The Writing Life
from the award-winning author of Remembering Babylon
- Published: 1 October 2015
- ISBN: 9780857984074
- Imprint: Vintage Australia
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 352
- RRP: $19.99
Best book of 2015.
Sonia Lee, Gleaner
An elegant and sustained examination of one question: what does it mean to be a writer? To read this book is to be inspired, and how could you not be when you read, now, with the sense of a benevolent and polymath reader, considered and considerate, just there, at your shoulder, to help you along? David Malouf is tops; he’s a boon to our myriad imaginary lives.
Ashley Hay, The Australian
Malouf posits a 'writing self' and a 'reading self', recognising them as distinct but complementary entities, and throught The Writing Life they are engaged in an illuminating conversation. His critical analysis includes autobiographical details, as if part of a work's significance is the effect it has had on him. Among Malouf's many writing identities - novelist, poet, memoirist, librettist - that of the literary critic might seem to be the least of his achievements, but The Writing Life demonstrates what an attentive and thoughtful reader he is. These essays not only offer interpretations of some of the great writers who have shaped Malouf's sensibility, they are themselves part of a literary 'process of discovery'.
James Ley, The Sydney Morning Herald