Metawritings Toward a theory of nonfiction

Despite its title, this collection serves not as traditional theoretical treatise but instead as a collection of prose pieces that circle around a question: what are the differences among fiction, nonfiction, and metafiction? Most of the contributions--which are by newer writers as well as well-known authors, e.g., Bernard Cooper and Lena Dunham--might be considered creative nonfiction, and each breaks the fourth wall, referring to itself as writing, or as being written, thus moving into the genre of metawriting. The variety of the voices and Talbot's brief interviews with the authors create a tangle of ideas about how much material in nonfiction can be made up, where the line is between fiction and memoir, and what truth is. The book resists the linear structure of scholarly argument: it opens with a fragmented memoir by Pam Houston, followed by a "meta-introduction" in which Talbot (St. Lawrence Univ.) highlights her central questions in short, meandering paragraphs. Writing about writing about writing cannot avoid moments of self-consciousness and preciousness, but here the passages that make one cringe also highlight provocative tensions. Summing Up: Recommended. With the above considerations. All readers. C. A. Bily Macomb Community College