The Paris Review Interviews, vol. I by the Paris Review (2006)

Sixteen interviews about writing with some of the notable authors of our time.

Nonfiction Review: The Paris Review Interviews is a treasure to the curious reader and a handbook for the aspiring writer. This phenomenal collection of interviews focusing on the art and craft of writing covers a 50 year period stretching from 1956 to 2006 with something for almost everyone who reads or writes. The company including some of the biggest names in writing such as Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, or Jorge Luis Borges, to personal favorites such as Dorothy Parker, Kurt Vonnegut, and James M. Cain, to writers I'd never heard of such as Rebecca West and Robert Stone. The book focuses on fiction writers and poets but also includes book and magazine editor Robert Gottlieb (unknown to me), legendary film director and screenwriter Billy Wilder, and essayist Joan Didion. Some interviews are more expansive or interesting than others, but all include valuable information, autobiographical or gossipy or insightful, about themselves and other writers (fascinating) and influences. The centerpiece of The Paris Review Interviews is the one with editor Robert Gottlieb, which is structured as a dialogue with some of the authors whose books he edited over the years, including Toni Morrison, Joseph Heller, Doris Lessing, John Le Carre, Cynthia Ozick. But all the interviews are valuable, each with a small helping of ego and a clear personality: Vonnegut's interview seems just like one of his books, Dorothy Parker is generous to others and immensely self-deprecating, Hemingway demands boundaries, Borges is more approachable than I expected, Elizabeth Bishop is shy and retiring, Richard Price talks about addiction and writing. Poet Jack Gilbert actually lived the life that Jack Kerouac wanted. The great film director Billy Wilder tells more war stories about Hollywood than secrets about writing. Just by the numbers, four of the 16 interviews are of female authors, and one, perhaps, is of a person of color. After reading the interviews it's clear that there are no rules for writing, or at least the rules are different for each writer. The Paris Review Interviews is a joy to read, a treasure on many levels. All these people are aware, intelligent, with an informed and individual perspective on life, books, and writing. And there are three more volumes in the series.  [5★]