The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Writing
The Chicago Tribune describes this book as "A stylish exploration of developing a distinctive voice and writing style."
Praise for "The Sound on the Page":
"Yagoda begins his penetrating, historically based inquiry into the allure of literature with a deceptively simple premise: 'Style matters.' But what exactly do we mean by style? And how does style relate to voice? Yagoda, the notably lucid author of About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made, establishes two stylistic poles: the 'transparent' prose advocated by Strunk and White's 'Elements of Style' and style as self-expression and the embodiment of a moral viewpoint. Seeking understanding of a "middle style" that combines the best of both, Yagoda--splendidly well read, inquisitive, and perceptive--spoke with 40 diverse writers about style and voice, and excerpts from his interviews with the likes of Harold Bloom, Toni Morrison, Elmore Leonard, Gish Jen, Dave Barry, Ann Beattie, and Billy Collins enliven his cogent running commentary with revelations of everything from whether writers use pens or computers to how a writer strikes a balance between spoken and written language. In sum, Yagoda has forged a sophisticated and scintillating writer's resource."
--Booklist
"'Style is the man,' George de Buffon famously proclaimed, but 250 years later we are still trying to figure out what that equivalence really means. By gathering together a chorus of contemporary writers to face this intriguing question, Ben Yagoda has not settled for a single answer, but he has struck just the right mix of seriousness and wit, anecdote and insight."
--Billy Collins
"Fresh and engaging.... Like Fabrice in 'The Charterhouse of Parma,' the author makes his way through the Battle of Waterloo--its literary equivalent, that is--and comes away not with grand strategies ... but with the enduring life of particular and obstinately colliding details."
--New York Times
"Ben Yagoda is the best kind of close reader, attentive to writerly choices that most of us take for granted."
--Wall Street Journal
"A stylish exploration of developing a distinctive voice and writing style."
--Chicago Tribune
"Ben Yagoda [is] the best kind of close reader, attentive to writerly choices that most of us take for granted."
--Wall Street Journal
"This entertaining and instructive book should be part of any writing collection."
--Library Journal
"This is an ingenious and memorable exploration of writing’s soul, a small book that challenges us to look past some of the operative 'rules' of the written words and to bravely examine what many writers consider ineffable--the matter of style."
--Mark Bowden
"One of the great pleasures of this book is Ben Yagoda's own style: he's witty and offhandedly erudite and unafraid to read between the lines of his interviewees' pronouncements on their style. He makes a terrific guide, convincing you that style and voice are not about flourishes and embellishments but ways of thinking about the world and the self."
--Ron Rosenbaum
"I'll walk under ladders, but superstitiously avoid books about writing. Ben Yagoda's book, however, is exciting and thought-provoking. The organization of material is wonderful; the writers' statements honest and revelatory. 'The Sound on the Page' offers not only the author’s amazingly informative narrative, but points us toward the vulnerability and the trial-and-error inherent in creativity."
--Ann Beattie
"Every writer seeks out style, and the equally elusive 'voice.' Too often, the path leads to the wrong places.... 'The Sound on the Page' is the right place."
--Alex Beam, Boston Globe
"A shrewd, welcome meditation on literary style. Drawing on classics, traditional theories, and examples from living, breathing colleagues, [Yagoda] has produced that rarest of tomes: a splendidly written book about writing."
--Philadelphia Inquirer
