The Writer's Voice

by Al Álvarez

A. Alvarez is the ideal guide to understanding how writing, reading, listening, and living contribute to the writer's art, and his book, based on a lifetime's experience, gives us a satisfying account of why all enduring works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction begin and end with the writer's voice.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Essays

130 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Alfred Alvarez was an English poet, novelist, essayist and critic who published under the name A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really loved how Alvarez expresses the importance of finding your voice in creative writing and how listeners need to be attentive when they listen. Didn’t like the last section as much, not because the idea wasn’t sound, but because the point felt a bit laboured, and the writing felt wandering.

[pausetowonder · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Reading well means opening your ears to the presence behind the words and knowing which notes are true and which are false. It is as much an art as writing well and almost as hard to acquire."

This is NOT a how-to book, but three essays exploring and thinking the subject through. What does an authentic voice feel like, sound like? How can you hear it -- or not -- in others. Everyone should have to read this in high school.

P.S. Forgot to mention that my one complaint about this book is Alvarez's obvious issue with the Romantics. Not only does he misrepresent them, he even lumps them together with Victorian and Gothic authors. For a more accurate picture of the Romantics, see Richard Holmes.

"...the altogether subtler sense of being emotionally awakened..."

"...the fragile defenses society has built to keep out chaos..."

"What is sometimes passed off as 'fine writing' -- also known as 'poetic prose' -- is usually little more than a set of secondhand stylistic devises that cost the writer nothing and flatter the readers into believing that, through it, they have graduated into a better class of literature."

"Art is about more than compensation or self-therapy... to make you... more fully and pleasurably alive."Richard Holmes

[Kirk Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

first: the slip cover for the hardcover is....ungh! gorgeous. the book feels great in the hand. so you're going to shell out all kinds of money for the hardcover. then A. Alvarez's writing is going to make you want to buy about thirty different books, because that's the effect he has whenever writes about any piece of literature. so save up about $200 before attempting this book.

this book isn't quite the masterpiece that the author's The Savage God is - a bit repetitive, a bit scattered, not awe-inspiring - but beautiful nonetheless. he heaps a surprising amount of condemnation on the Beats: goes out of his way, even, like driving ten miles out of your way to kick someone's gravesite, but the vituperation is not uninteresting. and i was heartened and vindicated by his disdain for speedreading. regardless of your views on these subjects, your good old well-mannered lyrical insightful literate friend Alvarez is here to charm you for the night.

[Cinita Nestiti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything I feared about reading advice on writing is proven wrong by this book! Must buy!

[Nick Wellings · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was ok, Al. Not great and not as the title suggests, but ok. I guess it couldn't be entitled "Al Alvarez Briefly Talks About Some Poems He Likes".

We get a bit of history of poetic movements, and a whole section on the pernicious effects of Romanticism, the artistic poverty of the Beats and their legacy, a few lines of poetry per chapter (except Plath's "Yew Tree" which appears in full) and a bit of "when I met Ginsburg, when I talked to Ted and Sylvia, when John Berryman talked with me etc." Lots of talking about poets and writers but not too much in depth analysis of their voices. (With a poem though, this is hard to do as reading is analysis.)

Looking at acknowledgements it seems the book was made from three lectures, and being short, it reads as such. Good to while away a few hours with.

[Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the whole, interesting and thought provoking, but it took me an age to finish as i put it down when he started getting all moralistic about the Beats drug taking, implying that they had denigrated the art of poetry whereas the drug taking of the old poets like Coleridge was justified as 'accidental', hmmmm, another just another aged white male rolling on about how things were better in the old days before the youth ruined poetry with their cult of the personality...but it is much better than the above makes it sound, when he writes on the practise of writing he is very very good.

[Donal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book bit me on the brain like a conger eel. Alvarez is a gifted writer and he pierces straight to the heart of the matter. On finishing it at 4am, I immediately wanted to start over at the beginning again.
I recommend it to anyone struggling to find that elusive 'voice'. That feeling where you know exactly how you want it to sound in your head, but when you look at it on the page you think, 'But wait, these are just words!'

[Castille · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Art is a quest for order and sanity undertaken by people who are themselves often disorderly, none too sane, and rarely loveable."
"...it is easy, in your lighthouse keeper's isolation, to be taken in by your own propaganda and begin to believe the myth you yourself have created."

I liked this book, especially towards the end. I was expecting it to be more of a how-to, with in-depth analyses than merely a topical discussion, but there were several quotes that resonated with me.

[Maha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A worthwhile read. I found the writer to be judgemental and self-indulgent in places, which annoyed me.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant book by a brilliant man... May he rest in peace, and I can't wait to read the rest of his works.

[Chrissy Francis-Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is based on three lectures A. Alvarez gave at the New York Public Library in October 2002. Each chapter covers discussion and literary analysis linked with the importance of 'finding a voice' in writing, as well as 'listening' when reading the works of others. Interestingly, the final chapter is entitled 'The Cult of Personality and the Myth of the Artist' and provided some engaging thoughts on the career requirements of an author. 

Found this to be a most interesting reference read with many reminders of lectures and tutorials from my English Literature degree. There is mention of the Romantics, the Beat poets, New Criticism, psychoanalysis, Modernism amongst others, to reduce the content to a few topics. There are gaps in the literary periods discussed, yet overall an interesting network literary response.

Some points I've drawn from these essays which connect with my own experience and learning include: 

"Freelance writing is a precarious trade, not least because shifting from one literary form to another may mean you end up mastering none. But for a writer, even precariousness has its uses: if nothing else, it makes you constantly alert to the way your voice comes off the page."

"...there is only one thing the four disciplines have in common: in order to write well you must first learn how to listen. And that, in turn, is something writers have in common with their readers..."

"...Reading well...is as much an art as writing well and almost as hard to acquire."

"the story matters less than how it is told."

"According to Isaac Babel, 'Your language becomes clear and strong, not when you can no longer add a sentence but when you can no longer take away from it.' "

"Rudyard Kipling...said that when he finished a story he locked it away in a drawer for a few weeks, then went through it again, blacking out with Indian ink all the bits he had been most proud of the first time around."

"Style...is different from voice, and sometimes the style you have labored to achieve - your stylishness - gets in the way of what you have to say."

"There is of course, no necessary or obvious correlation between an artist's physique and his work although Hemingway clearly thought otherwise. When starting out - a young man who fished and hunted and boxed as well as wrote - he honed his prose as rigorously as an athlete in training hones his body in order to create, as it were the literary equivalent of an athlete's purity and asceticism."

[Box · Rating 2 out of 5]

As the book moves from being grounded in the author to being more about some mystical property of artists to have a "richer inner life" than normal people it falls apart. The third chapter drifts off into ranting and the author seems to need the idea that artists' thoughts are transcendental and accomplishing some great task incomprehensible for mortals. That said, the first chapter does a great job discussing where a writer gets their distinctive voice. It's not great, but has interesting moments that make it worth a read.

[Nick B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, annoying, frustrating, but challenging. There's plenty in here I don't agree with and some of it has the feel of "old man yells at cloud" but also thought-provoking, especially in the first two sections. The idea that the author and their voice are separate and that we should we more interested in what they say than who they are is explored in different ways and gives you different ways to look at literature, which is one of the purposes of criticism.

[Iara · Rating 3 out of 5]

"É por isso que D. H. Lawrence estava errado, creio eu, quando escreveu: 'A pessoa guarda sua doença em livros - repete e exibe essas emoções para poder dominá-las.' A arte é mais do que uma compensação e uma autoterapia, assim como a psicanálise é mais do que proporcionar alívio e sintomas, e a cura é um conceito estreito demais para o que uma e outra podem realizar em seu potencial pleno."

[Mauricio Antonio · Rating 5 out of 5]

O autor se debruça sobre uma questão fundamental para o escritor ou para quem deseja se tornar escritor, a saber, a voz com que ele se dirige ao leitor. Essa voz é mais importante do que o próprio estilo, porque se "o homem é o estilo", a alma do homem é a sua voz, no meu entender.

Vale muito a pena a leitura de A VOZ DO ESCRITOR de Al. Álvarez.

Mauricio Duarte (Divyam Anuragi)

[Bryan Wade · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was loaned to me to help with my writing... It answered a couple of questions but was more about poetry and things I didn't find relevant... My question was. How do you make the voice of your characters different from one another?

[Lee Kofman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started well, with some good insights on the title's topic, but ended up becoming literary criticism book with a preference for poetry. So it didn't really deliver what it promised.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alvarez makes some interesting points here about the authenticity of 'voice' and the nature of 'finding voice'. Yet I can't help but feel he is too conflicted, neither for or against the writer/reader, and I find that a little disorientating. But then perhaps that's his intention? Either way, he fails to present the reader with any straight-forward answers, which can be really frustrating with a critical text.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for an upcoming writer's workshoop . . . didn't change my life but found some moments of inspiration. Like his discussion of reading and writing as "private, inward experiences that take place, like thinking, in silence."

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was short. It's not entirely on topic, particularly chapter three, but as writer's anecdotes, I haven't seen these before. Of particular interest was the one about Henry James, and the last chapter on 'the new Criticism' had some zingers.

[Laurie Petersen]

I was excited, in the early part of the book, to see that he was skewering modern literary theory. But then in the last third, where he is blaming everything bad in modern literature on the Beats, he lost me.

[Shaun Levin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intense, clear and spiritual approach to writing and reading. A truly glorious book, marred only by a weird dislike for the Beats, and Alan Ginsberg in particular. The first two chapters/essays could pretty much be the bible for every writer who wants to create meaningful work.

[Quiver · Rating 3 out of 5]

With limited knowledge of poetry, the first two chapters are easier to appreciate than the last, third. Nevertheless, it's replete with ideas about 'the writer's voice' and anyone who reads or writes would find something worth thinking about.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read and very thought provoking. Love the idea that a writer might not actually like his or her own voice.

[npaw · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only voice this guy cares about hearing is his own.

[Leonardo de Moraes]

Clear-catching writing about the aspects of searching your own voice as a writer. Al Alvarez shows how to analyse your criative internal thoughts.

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree. Moments of inspiration in otherwise broad and rambling lectures.

[Sarah Yasin · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was cataloged in the library with other books on authorship. I find as a manual, this is really pedantic.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Makes me very happy every time I read! Like an old good friend, companion.

[Emylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

He made a couple of interesting points, but I didn't get as much out of this book as I had hoped.