Hie thee hither!
Wait! Not that close . . .
OK. That's good.
You should read How Fiction Works, by James Wood. He writes wonderful critical pieces for the New Yorker. Bright guy. This book walks briskly through a host of idea about how narrative achieves what it achieves, though the book also slows to browse through many well-phrased examples to make its points. Wood cuts through the brush of decades (centuries, even) of rancor to point out what should be obvious, if one sets aside ideological fixedness. Really a fine work.
