James Wood Explains 'How Fiction Works'

“Of course, I don’t think I did explain how fiction works,” Harvard professor James Wood told an overflowing room of Cambridge locals, students, and fans at the Harvard Bookstore last night, while discussing his latest book “How Fiction Works.”

“In my defense, I did not want the book to be called ‘How Fiction Works,’” Wood, who is also a literary critic for The New Yorker, joked.

In fact, Wood’s intended title for the book—“The Nearest Thing To Life”—would have been in keeping with his lecture’s primary topic, the creation of vivid and effective characters in writing.

Arguing against E.M. Forster’s distinction between flat and rounded characters, Wood said that both readers and writers should be concerned with the human vividness and mystery of fictional characters, rather than understanding the intimate details of their lives.

“I think we’re too pious about this business of creating character,” Wood said. According to Wood, there are only a few authors, such at Tolstoy or Shakespeare, who “have something freakish about their ability to create galleries of characters not like themselves.”

But, Wood added, though other writers portray “essentially flat” characters with fewer dimensions, they are deftly rendered and equally as effective.

Wood said he was motivated to write his latest book by the students in the MFA classes he teaches at Colombia, as well as a rift that he sees in American literature between different views of characterization.

Wood said he designed his book for “hybrid readers like myself, a bit of commonness and a bit of uncommonness.” This description proved apt for the crowd that had gathered to hear Wood’s talk last night.

Though attended by few Harvard students, the lecture was packed with aspiring writers and local fans, who scribbled in notebooks or flipped through books as they waited for him to arrive.

“He’s pretty sweet,” said Alex Kalamaroff, a Boston public school substitute teacher who sits in on Wood’s lectures at Harvard in his spare time.

“My problem with book reviews is that I’d rather read books. [But] Even Philip Roth’s new novel is worse than this,” Kalmaroff said, holding up a copy of “How Fiction Works.” “Vigorous writing. A little fierce but never snarky.”

Waiting in line for his book to be signed, fan and aspiring poet Daniel E. Pritchard said, “He gets into it. He talks about why they [books] work and why they don’t.”

“I think he’s the best in his field,” he added.