Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Mr. Fish writes: "It is often said that language is to report or reflect or mirror reality, but the power of language is greater and more dangerous than that; it shapes reality not of course in a literal sense--the world is one thing, words another--but in the sense that the order imposed on a piece of the world by a sentence is the only one among innumerable possible orders." "To be sure, your eventual goal is to be able to write forcefully about issues that matter to you, but if you begin with those issues uppermost in your mind, you will never get to the point where you can do verbal justice to them." These lamentable sentences are directly from Mr. Fish's book. This book is rife with unintelligible prose--dozens on every page. Poorly written sentences -- full of extraneous adjectives, adverbs and clauses, usually starting with a weak prepositional phrase-- make reading this book like wading through a swamp in flip flops. The author's joy of sentences far outweighs his ability to write one. A fan does not need to play cello like Yo Yo Ma to enjoy his music, so why should I care if Mr. Fish can himself write a strong sentence? Because his gross lack of self-editing, which reads like a maniacal professor on an absinthe-induced rant, becomes droll by page 20, and downright unreadable by page 65. "Language is to reflect reality, but powerful language shapes reality by imposing order on the world." "Your goal is to write forcefully about important issues, and do them verbal justice." Here are the two above sentences by Mr. Fish, properly edited and more pleasant to read (admittedly, the second sentence does not convey the full meaning of Mr. Fish's sentence; his makes no sense and is thus poor in both form and content and cannot be edited successfully). I adore a well-turned sentence. But this book strays so far from practicing what it preaches, it's a tiresome and pointless slog for the reader. The examples of wonderful sentences written by others are few and far between. Most of the text is the author himself, enjoying the clicking of his own keyboard. This book is a stream-of-consciousness pontification about quality sentences that the author himself cannot write. Fine companions to this book would be "The Fine Art of Editing Sentences" or "The Power of Simple Declarative Sentences". There are many better books that teach both the appreciation and the construction of simple and eloquent sentences. One example is Paula LaRocque's The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide To Writing Well. Ms. LaRocque teaches by example: she shows passable sentences revised to be excellent sentences. The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well A student of fine writing, as well as an appreciative reader, would do best to read the masters of simple, powerful writing: E. Hemingway, J. Steinbeck, C. McCarthy, F.S. Fitzgerald, etc. Learn through example, rather than by being lectured from Professor Convoluted. Two giant thumbs down. One look at the titles of the other books by Stanley Fish (please take a moment to review his bibliography) will prove that Mr. Fish is not one for concise and powerful writing -- even his book titles are mind-numbing. A true disappointment as I wanted to like this book. !!Have a wonderful day!!