James Moffett (1929–1996)

Excellent anthology that organizes short stories by narrative perspective. Used Irwin Shaw's "'Act of Faith" in conjunction with our reading of Elie Wiesel's "Night" to practice synthesizing ideas and writing thematic statements.

The afterword is also insightful, in that it summarizes the development of the complex individual point of view, with internal voice and conflicts. Basically, Moffett contends that this way of telling a story is very modern and comes from our increasingly individualistic, non-communal society.… (more)

This was a large collection of short stories that sometimes hit, other times miss. Nevertheless, there are classics here-- as well as other inclusions that touch on the basis of narrative. The entire book formulates itself around points of view and the various ways that they can be used to write, describe, and facilitate the telling of a story. Overall, the small briefs before each section are considerably well-written and allow for deep, meaningful thoughts about the subject matter. Overall, it was a nice collection, and its lessons are not easily forgotten for the savvy reader.

3.5… (more)