i feel like informative is a rather lacking as a term to refer to this as but, i don’t know a better one. so yes,  this was informative.

legitimately, it had me thinking about writing in ways that, even i as a person of color, have never really had the mind to consider before. this book really does read as a miniature course in fiction writing, which tends to make it quite dense in information,  though i found  he does take care to make sure it is still easily readable. (whatever that means.)

i checked this out from my library, and i will be purchasing this for myself in the future, because this is a book that you could (and absolutely should) read time and time again because it offers up new insights and understandings every time.

i especially enjoyed the examples of alternative crafts from african and asian writings. i’d say a pitfall of this book is that these are largely the only examples of diverse fiction, but the author did say at the beginning that it was in no way intended to be comprehensive, and it seems like he went with works that were familiar to him. the author mentioned his intention with this book was to bring about the start of a conversation and in my opinion he succeeded in that. 

i will admit that I did not read this book cover to cover as there is a section dedicated to workshops, which is not currently applicable in my life, so those pages were mostly skimmed. however did appreciate the questionnaire (or rather, guide) in the section “Syllabus Example” about how you should be looking at your work and others. if you are a writer yourself, i highly recommend reading through the appendix section for the writing exercises, and at least skim through the workshop portion regardless of whether or not you are currently or planning to attend one.