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. - Mark Bowden, author of Killing Pablo
One of the great pleasures of this book is Ben Yagoda’s own style: he’s witty and offhandedly erudite (nobody better on the opening of Bleak House) 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 and about the world and the self. - Ron Rosenbaum, author of Explaining Hitler and The Secret Parts of Fortune
Drawing on interviews with more than 40 authors—from Margaret Drabble to Peter Carey to Jamaica Kincaid to John Updike—this book is a stylish exploration of developing a distinctive voice and writing style. Practical and witty, it’s a helpful book that doesn’t devolve into self-help. - Chicago Tribune
“...the right mix of seriousness and wit, anecdote and insight.” - Billy Collins
“...offers not only the author’s amazingly informative narrative, but points us toward...the trial and error inherent in creativity.” - Ann Beattie
“[Ben Yagoda] is witty and offhandedly erudite and unafraid to read between the lines...” - Ron Rosenbaum, author of Explaining Hitler and Secret Parts of Fortune
“This entertaining and instructive book should be part of any writing collection.” - Library Journal
“A stylish exploration of developing a distinctive voice and writing style.” - Chicago Tribune
“This is an ingenious and memorable exploration of writing’s soul...” - Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo
“Ben Yagoda [is] the best kind of close reader, attentive to writerly choices that most of us take for granted.” - Wall Street Journal
‘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 for this engaging pursuit. - Billy Collins
Ben Yagoda has got it right: Style matters. Every writer seeks out style, and the equally elusive “voice.” Too often, the path leads to the wrong places, the most notable of the wrong places being the soul-deadening (and pen-dulling) The Elements of Style by E.B. White and William Strunk. The Sound on the Page is the right place. Yagoda, a thoughtful questioner who pulls off some stylin’ of his own, asks forty accomplished writers what seems to be an impossible question: How do you do that thing you do? - Alex Beam, Boston Globe columnist and author of Gracefully Insane
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, author of Park City: New and Selected Stories and The Doctor's House
“A shrewd, welcome meditation on literary style… that rarest of tomes: a splendidly written book about writing.” - Philadelphia Inquirer