Review or be Reviewed

As an aspiring writer, how many times have you heard someone say, “To be a great writer you must be a great reader”? True enough, reading is essential to learning the craft of writing; however, there is one further step which you might want to take. An aspiring writer needs to develop the art of reading a book and thereafter analysing it in a logical manner. Such analysis imposes upon you the discipline of writing precisely and coherently – putting together a compelling argument while being fair and balanced in what you say. In short, what aspiring writers are encouraged to do is to learn to write a review.

The starting point to developing the skills of writing a good review is the need to keep in mind that throughout, your duty is to provide an honest opinion of the book. Thereafter, writing a review can properly be divided into the following steps.

Step 1 – Basic information

Start by making a list of the core questions you should ask about this book. For instance:

·        What is the title of the book?

·        Who are the publishers?

·        Is it sold in paperback version or hard cover?

·        What is the ISBN?

·        How many pages are there in this book?

·        What is the price of the book?

·        Where is it available for sale?

Step 2 – The essence of the book

In this step, you need to begin analysing the book proper. This does not mean giving a full synopsis of the story with a sentence at the end that says something along the lines of, “It’s a great book. Go read it.” It has to be something more. The following questions will help you establish the essence of the book you are trying to write a review for.

·        What type of book is this? Is it fiction or non-fiction?

·        If it is fiction, is it a thriller? Is it a literary novel, chick-lit or teenage fiction?

·        If it is non-fiction, is it self-help, academic or travel?

·        Who is the intended audience?

·        What is the background of the author?

·        What is the topic under discussion? Is it suitable for its intended audience?

·        Analyse the quality of writing in a work of fiction by considering some of these aspects of the craft of writing:

o       Plot

§        Is the plot of this story plausible?

§        Were you hooked the moment you read the first few lines of the book? Did you want to know more?

For example, what made me want to read Truth, Love and a Little Malice : An Autobiography by Khushwant Singh was this one sentence printed on the inside cover of the book:

Among other honours, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974 by the President of India (he returned the decoration in 1984 in protest against the Union Government's siege of the Golden Temple, Amritsar).

Instantly, I wanted to read the story of a man who had the courage to return an award recognising his distinguished service of a high order to the nation. What was his background? Who were the people who provided him with such a sense of identity and pride in the man he had become? What manner of courage was this?

§        Does the story flow from beginning to end?

§        Is there a proper climax in the story and is the build up been good?

§        Are you satisfied with the way the book ends? You don’t have to agree with the way the story concludes; the question asked is, “Are you satisfied?”

o       Characters

§        Are you able to identify your characters from the start?

§        Are there too many characters or are there too little (few)?

§        Can you see these characters in front of you or is it just a 'blurred vision of some people'?

§        Do you care for your characters? Do you feel their pain, their sorrow, their joy?

§        Do you like the central character?

One of the characters I like most is Mrs. Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Just read the conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet below and see how well the character has been developed from the very beginning of the book:

“My dear Mr. Bennet,'' said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last? ”

Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.

“But it is,” returned she, “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it. ”

Mr. Bennet made no answer.

“Do not you want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife impatiently.

“You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”

This was invitation enough.

“Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week.”

“What is his name?”

“Bingley.”

“Is he married or single?”

“Oh! single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”

Just reading the text above, I can all but feel Mrs. Bennet’s close to simultaneous emotions of excitement and frustrations.

o       Setting

§        Do you feel as if you know the place the author is at pains to describe?

A good example is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. His tale is set in London. However, it is neither the London of today nor is it the London of the time when the book was published, which was sometime in the 1930s. It is a London of the future. Consider the following text from the novel and observe the detailed description the author gives:

A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.

The enormous room on the ground floor faced towards the north. Cold for all the summer beyond the panes, for all the tropical heat of the room itself, a harsh thin light glared through the windows, hungrily seeking some draped lay figure, some pallid shape of academic goose-flesh, but finding only the glass and nickel and bleakly shining porcelain of a laboratory. Wintriness responded to wintriness. The overalls of the workers were white, their hands gloved with a pale corpse-coloured rubber. The light was frozen, dead, a ghost. Only from the yellow barrels of the microscopes did it borrow a certain rich and living substance, lying along the polished tubes like butter, streak after luscious streak in long recession down the work tables.

o       Purpose

§        Does the book have a purpose? What is it?

§        Is there a moral that the author needs to impart? Does the author succeed in imparting it effectively?

Step 3 - Offer your personal opinion

Granted, this part is by far, the hardest part of writing a review. Still, if you stick within certain parameters, you will not find it too tedious a task. Note that I use the word 'Offer' when I say you must offer your personal opinion. The reason for this is that you cannot demand that another person accept your opinion of a story; you can merely offer it to them. It is up to the people who read your review to accept or reject the offer you make. If you were to make such a demand, it usually comes across as ‘talking down’ to one’s readers and serves to annoy them.

In addition, you must remember that there is a big difference between being fair and being malicious and petty. While you may not like the book you’ve reviewed, the author has usually put a great deal of effort into his/her work and deserves respect for that alone. Your criticism should always aim to be constructive and not destructive. More often than not, many writers learn a great deal from constructive criticism of their work. Where the criticism has been destructive, writers have just penned that particular reviewer down to being perhaps mad and/or absolutely unprofessional.

Here are some questions you may wish to ask yourself to help you form your opinion:

·        Will you give this book as a gift to someone?

·        Will you be happy if you receive this book as a gift?

·        Will you spend your hard-earned money on this book?

·        Will you keep this book for all time?

·        Have you developed a different perspective from reading this book? How and why?

·        Are you glad you read it and why?

As stated previously, writing a review is a skill. There is no doubt that like all skills, the more you practice, the better you will become at writing a review.

Aneeta Sundararaj is the editor of 'How To Tell A Great Story' (http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com ).