Cover of The Trick of It

The Trick of It

He knows everything about her before they meet: the make of pen she writes with, her exact height, the various honorary degrees she holds. He knows more about her nine novels and 27 short stories than she does herself. Naturally—he has devoted his life to studying and teaching them, and he reveres them. Also, he is four times as clever as she is.

Read more

The Trick of It is a comic and painful voyage of exploration into the creative process and the feelings it arouses in others. The humble academic disciple finds himself admitted to his subject's life, and off to this oldest friend go a series of dispatches—by turns awed and patronizing, reverential and jealous, disingenuous and appallingly frank.

Audience
adult
Length
short · 176 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked The Trick of It? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Trick of It. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Enderby's Dark Lady Shares fiction, literary fiction, humor
  2. In Search of J.D. Salinger Shares literature
  3. Busy Monsters Shares fiction, metafiction, literary fiction
  4. The Story of You

“People who read The Trick of It tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Only When I Larf
  2. Queuing for Beginners: The Story of Daily Life from Breakfast to Bedtime
  3. Other People's Trades
  4. In Pursuit of the English: A Documentary

“If you want more of the same (literary fiction), start with these.”

  1. The Jailing of Cecelia Capture
  2. The Sweet Shop Owner
  3. The Rosy Crucifixion: Sexus, Plexus, Nexus
  4. Men and Angels

“If it was the modern lit that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Tin Can Tree
  2. Georgy Girl
  3. First Novel
  4. Sister

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. 4 Chair Discipling: Growing a Movement of Disciple-Makers
  2. The Obstinate Pen
  3. Writing the Life Poetic: An Invitation to Read & Write Poetry
  4. Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples