If you're looking for a book on how to write, this probably isn't what you're looking for. But if you're looking for perhaps the funniest, most critical book on writing, this is it. Higgins spends much of the time telling you, in a very cynically humorous way, of all the reasons you shouldn't become a writer. His main message is that if you don't feel compelled to write and if you aren't already writing, then you aren't a writer. And my own situation probably proves that--wanting to write since I was a boy, but having only written a few short stories, none published, although I did almost get published in Twilight Zone magazine once--a LOOOOOOONG time ago. Higgins take on other writers is also interesting, whether you agree with it or not. He seems to hate Thomas Wolfe and believe that only his editor make his work readable, which I tend to disagree with after reading Wolfe's original version of Look Homeward Angel. He adores Hemingway. And he loves non-fiction for what fiction writers can learn from it. Notably, this book, which isn't too long to begin with, is full of long excerpts from longer works as well as complete shorter pieces. These are basically the instructional part of the book, and Higgins does a great job of telling you why each piece works. The selections include Dickens (whom Higgins rightly calls "prolix", Hemingway (intended as a direct contrast to Dickens), Gay Talese, Ring Lardner, James Thurber, Irwin Shaw, John O'Hara, William Manchester, John Marquand, and Catherine Drinker Bowen. They are all excellent. Higgins says that when writing, he would restrict himself to reading non-fiction so as not to be influenced or unconsciously steal something. Among other non-fiction books he recommends are Capote's "In Cold Blood", which of course, reads like a novel. So, to sum it up, I'm not sure how much this will help anyone get published--and the publishing industry is obviously worlds away from what it was in Higgins' time--if Amazon had existed, he might have "published" the first 14 novels that were rejected multiple times each before he succeeded with "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" in 1972--and Higgins would probably be forgotten already. But for anyone who loves reading, this book is gold. Higgins and his chosen exemplars are great companions for the few hours it takes to read this. ( )

NA