Rating: 
Summary: It's not meant to be a how-to book...
Review: ...which is probably why it is disappointing some readers. All I can say is this: I've been making a living as a writer for twenty-five years and this book was a great moral boost to me. Only another writer can understand the specific ways in which a writer is pummeled, and by the same token, only another writer can give "keep the faith" advice that is truly meaningful. To me, the book was like sending my soul to a spa.
Rating:
Summary: Many Jewels Within
Review: Choosing this book was a no-brainer: I figured an author whose fiction I have enjoyed for as long as I can remember would be able to teach me quite a bit as a fellow writer. This book does not disappoint.I am a bit perplexed by some of these other reviews: could they have possibly read the same book I have next to me, highlighted - read and re-read, scribbled inside due to the many insights contained within? I found the chapters on "Running and Writing" and "Failure" to be exceptionally intriguing. The "Running and Writing" chapter reminds me of Natalie Goldberg's love affair with the same topic in her work "Wild Mind". I can completely connect viscerally to Oates' statement, "Running seems to allow me, ideally, an expanded consciousness." "Failure" reminded me that "the greats" too, have had their own versions of unsuccess... and some people, such as Alice James the sister-in-the-shadows of William and Henry James may have appeared in life to be the personification of "Failure" in her (found after death) words immortal. Stories such as these, told in the voice of a "JCO" (yes, she refers to her writer self using her initials in the book) are quite enlightening and reassuring to me. I will treasure this book. I know it will be one I return to repeatedly for guidance, a shot of inspiration and straight shooting when my own words seem to become nothing but an annoyance.
Rating:
Summary: Many Jewels Within
Review: Choosing this book was a no-brainer: I figured an author whose fiction I have enjoyed for as long as I can remember would be able to teach me quite a bit as a fellow writer. This book does not disappoint. I am a bit perplexed by some of these other reviews: could they have possibly read the same book I have next to me, highlighted - read and re-read, scribbled inside due to the many insights contained within? I found the chapters on "Running and Writing" and "Failure" to be exceptionally intriguing. The "Running and Writing" chapter reminds me of Natalie Goldberg's love affair with the same topic in her work "Wild Mind". I can completely connect viscerally to Oates' statement, "Running seems to allow me, ideally, an expanded consciousness." "Failure" reminded me that "the greats" too, have had their own versions of unsuccess... and some people, such as Alice James the sister-in-the-shadows of William and Henry James may have appeared in life to be the personification of "Failure" in her (found after death) words immortal. Stories such as these, told in the voice of a "JCO" (yes, she refers to her writer self using her initials in the book) are quite enlightening and reassuring to me. I will treasure this book. I know it will be one I return to repeatedly for guidance, a shot of inspiration and straight shooting when my own words seem to become nothing but an annoyance.
Rating: 
Summary: More mediocrity
Review: Hello, my name is Joyce Carol Oates, and in every bookstore in the world, I must occupy at least two shelves for myself. JCO has never written anything of real insight in her life. She is wordy, PC, dull, and overly prolific, not because she has good ideas, but because her ideas are shallow and therefore she can use lots and lost of pages to say what good writers could do in 2 sentences. In just this year, she has published 3 books. And the year isn't over yet. This book in particular is bloated and dull. End of story. "Blonde" is a terrible PC piece of dreck claiming for 700 plus pages of very small print, how Marylin Monroe was a misunderstood brilliant genius. WOW. Let me tell you something- if you keep having to say it over and over again to yrself, maybe you'll come to believe it. Genius. Right. Right up there with Picasso and Newton and Homer and whoever else. JCO writes so much, you just want her to go away- she is desperately trying to find something to keep her name in print in 100 yrs, because she must know she don't got it and she won't last. Quantity doesn't mean quality. She is very sloppy and there isn't anything she could possibly offer on the technique of writing, other than just having diarreah of the typewriter/laptop. As Truman Capote said of Mickey Spillane- 'that's typing, not writing.' And JCO should win her 'typing' award very soon. If not for her speed, then for her ability in fooling dummies into thinking her pretentious drivel is anything more than just crap. And she's a HORRIBLE poet. End of story. Don't buy this book folks. Okay, I feel better now. phew!
Rating:
Summary: Don't let the manque artists adulterate your decision
Review: It's salient that the asperision toward the great coeval Joyce Carol Oates, comes from writers and envious iconolists. As an author i can tell you that her collected essays, the faith of a writer shows erudition. Especially for you youthful craftsmen and women out there, she gives a few pointers such the ineffable value of reading as a writer. If i may be granted a moment to digress and comminute a to a name she mentions. Alfred Chester is the most overlooked author in the last 150 years, the very fact that she read The Exquisite Corpse and Jamie is my hearts desire, shows a profundity that is altissimo and second only to her eudition. To those philistines who mentioned the book on Norma Jeane Baker (Marylyn Monroe)you couldnt even name its title, much less its epigraph. I can't review Blonde because this review is for The Faith Of a writer, but let me reccommend it, and it is genuis, unlike the dross by Cormac Mccarthy and Delillio. if you ever need motivation before you write, or anytime read this. If you aren't jealous of a writer who has a repository of poetry, plays, screenplays, children books, novels, novellas then this is for you.
Rating:
Summary: It's not meant to be a how-to book...
Review: Joyce Carol Oates couldn't be more vague about the craft of writing. Why exactly do writers compose these crazy self-help manuals anyway? Writing is something that can never be taught. And maxims like "explore your mind" and "discover your voice" aren't really all that helpful anyway. Most great writers, Joyce Carol Oates included, are gifted people. They don't know how or why they write so well, they just do it. Trying to explain how they gather inspiration is a waste of time. Hemingway said that if you talk about your own writing then you will be tarnishing something sacred. And I agree with that sentiment. Stop trying to analyze your writing. Instead, just write, and be grateful that you can write. Becuase most of us can't. Talking about craft is stupid.
Rating: 
Summary: blah blah blah
Review: Joyce Carol Oates couldn't be more vague about the craft of writing. Why exactly do writers compose these crazy self-help manuals anyway? Writing is something that can never be taught. And maxims like "explore your mind" and "discover your voice" aren't really all that helpful anyway. Most great writers, Joyce Carol Oates included, are gifted people. They don't know how or why they write so well, they just do it. Trying to explain how they gather inspiration is a waste of time. Hemingway said that if you talk about your own writing then you will be tarnishing something sacred. And I agree with that sentiment. Stop trying to analyze your writing. Instead, just write, and be grateful that you can write. Becuase most of us can't. Talking about craft is stupid.
Rating:
Summary: More a self help book than a teaching tool.
Review: Joyce Carol Oates flounders in coming across with nothing more than another book turned out with the speed of a professional typist. She populates the book with sentences that go on and on and on. Is this just another way for writers to make money? After all that stuff about Amazon having authors write their own reviews coming out in the NY Times this week --- which happened while I was finishing this one --- I wonder if Ms. Oates was at it, since there are nothing but five stars on this site. I found little helpful in this book. It seemed Ms. Oates was writing more about herself. Maxims abound that belong on the Dr. Phil show. Give me a break. I actually bought this book based on Amazon customer reviews. Never again.
Rating:
Summary: The Muse is Caught Briefly by Oates.
Review: Joyce Carol Oates is a prodigious talent, both in volume and quality. One is in awe of the numerous titles from various genres - novel, poetry, play, essay and novella - for which she has published and received critical acclaim within the past forty years. Who is more qualified than Oates to assemble "The Faith of a Writer," a collection of essays written over a large span of years (many published earlier) that explore the craft of writing? Oates says the collection is "meant to be undogmatic, provisional."
This is not a how-to write book, but rather, a personal take how Oates and other writers like Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and several other notables approach the craft of writing. The most interesting essay, "Notes on Failure," examines the helpful role failure can play when striving for memorable writing. Oates discusses James Joyce's difficulty in getting his first novel published before he wrote the classic "Ulysses." In response to the repeated rejections, "Joyce retreated, and allowed himself ten years to write a masterpiece."
Oates also ponders topics such as inspiration, her early childhood influences, reading as a writer, and self-criticism. Her tone throughout each short essay is crisp and direct, often compelling and endearing, like a schoolteacher who always demands the best. Oates stresses that writing when done well, like any other artistic endeavor, is a craft. She believes, "inspiration and energy and even genius are rarely enough to make `art': for prose fiction is also a craft, and craft must be learned."
Oates' slender volume is a beautiful rumination and worthy addition to her large catalog of work. She manages to pin down and examine the elusive nature of the muse.
Rating:
Summary: The Master Speaks
Review: Since I have read so many of JC Oates' works over the years, it was with a little trepidation that I approached "The Faith of a Writer." Reading a lot of any writer's works gives you the feeling that you know the author as well as any member of your family or your circle of best friends. So, reading something directly from Oates about her inspirations, her craft and how she goes about actually producing her works was a bit scary for me. It's like meeting a favorite movie star in a one-on-one situation: what if she isn't as smart, as witty, as nice, as perceptive, as devilish as he appears on screen...or in Oates' case, on the written page.
But like listening to a good friend relate stories of her life and how she goes about her craft, Oates enlightens rather than frightens: she adds additional insight to her works of fiction rather than tear down my perceptions of them.
Oates on writers: (they have)..."an affinity for risk, danger, mystery, a certain derangement of the soul; a craving for distress, the predilection for insomnia." And as an extension Oates states these are the people who create "the highest form of the human spirit, Art."
Going against the common notion that we should write what we know (and Oates's works certainly support this contention): "The artist can inhabit any individual for the individual is irrelevant to art."
Like most great artists, Oates writes because she can't help it, it's in her blood and anyone who has read any of her works would have to agree that there are drops of blood as well as sweat on each page of her work.
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