The Hidden Machinery: Essays on Writing

Livesey (Mercury) writes with wisdom and insight about the craft of writing, proposing to expose what the professional author conceals that the apprentice fiction writer needs to know. This includes how character, plot, and imagery “work together to make an overarching argument” and how the life and times of an author shape a work. Examining writers such as Austen, Flaubert, Shakespeare, and Woolf, Livesey analyzes their techniques, adding insights from E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel and John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction. Her work yields interesting nuggets of information, such as the importance of secondary characters who can, if needed, spring to life, or the use of objects to reveal emotions. Relying on famous authors makes a compelling strategy, as their work is already familiar to many readers (Livesey’s own novels, which she also discusses, will not be quite so well known). The book is skillfully written: one might quibble that Livesey focuses a bit too much on the personal saga of her trials with a critical father and unloving stepmother, but despite that distraction, she offers helpful strategies for thinking about the elusive art of fiction. [em](July) [/em]