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Rating: 
Summary: John Rubadeau: great writer, great professor.
Review: I bought this book because I was attending John Rubadeau's writing class at the University of Michigan as this book was being published. He was so hysterically funny, brilliantly interesting, and fantastically energetic about grammar and writing that I knew that this book would reflect his passion for the English language and for life in general! Boy, was I right!!
Great work of art, John!!!
Rating:
Summary: John Rubadeau: great writer, great professor.
Review: I bought this book because I was attending John Rubadeau's writing class at the University of Michigan as this book was being published. He was so hysterically funny, brilliantly interesting, and fantastically energetic about grammar and writing that I knew that this book would reflect his passion for the English language and for life in general! Boy, was I right!!
Great work of art, John!!!
Rating:
Summary: "Guffman" and "Spinal Tap" for Writers
Review: If you laughed at the "Remains of the Day" lunch boxes and "Dinner with Andre" action figures in "Waiting for Guffman", and if you fed off the original plot twists in "World According to Garp" - in short if you want a great laugh delivered via terrific writing, this is a book to add to your library. In the beginning we meet Joe Leonard, frustrated legit writer,desperate for income, who adopts a pseudonym (Fiona Pilgrim), with the intention of hacking out romance novels. Been there (with above plot) and done that, you might think, but you haven't been where this author takes you. After setting the premise, author Rubadeau reveals his tale through a series of letters from his protaganist, Joe to an academic mentor at Harvard, from Joe (as Fiona) to June Featherstone (Britain's top romance author), and from June to Fiona. As three romance stories develop, those real more implausible than those fictional, we learn the do's and don'ts of authoring romance (i.e., romance readers aren't generally fluent in foreign languages, but we can skip translating "cul-de-sac"), along with more details about Romania than we ever hoped (or wanted) to know. In one sentence, I recommend "The Passionate Papers of Fiona Pilgrim" because it's well-crafted and fun!
Rating:
Summary: "Guffman" and "Spinal Tap" for Writers
Review: If you laughed at the "Remains of the Day" lunch boxes and "Dinner with Andre" action figures in "Waiting for Guffman", and if you fed off the original plot twists in "World According to Garp" - in short if you want a great laugh delivered via terrific writing, this is a book to add to your library. In the beginning we meet Joe Leonard, frustrated legit writer,desperate for income, who adopts a pseudonym (Fiona Pilgrim), with the intention of hacking out romance novels. Been there (with above plot) and done that, you might think, but you haven't been where this author takes you. After setting the premise, author Rubadeau reveals his tale through a series of letters from his protaganist, Joe to an academic mentor at Harvard, from Joe (as Fiona) to June Featherstone (Britain's top romance author), and from June to Fiona. As three romance stories develop, those real more implausible than those fictional, we learn the do's and don'ts of authoring romance (i.e., romance readers aren't generally fluent in foreign languages, but we can skip translating "cul-de-sac"), along with more details about Romania than we ever hoped (or wanted) to know. In one sentence, I recommend "The Passionate Papers of Fiona Pilgrim" because it's well-crafted and fun!
Rating:
Summary: I highly recommend this book
Review: When I first picked it up, the title made me think that this WAS a romance novel. What makes it such a hysterical book is that it's about an erudite manly-man in financial trouble who thinks the easiest way to make a quick buck is writing a trashy romance novel. Only he doesn't know how so he seeks help from the most successful romance novel author of all. What I like best is the style of prose and the difficulties the main character, Joe Leonard, has as he writes from three different personas: himself, Fiona Pilgrim (the fawning housewife would-be author seeking the help), and the romance novel heroine. I can't stop laughing while I read how he tries to keep it up. This is a great novel.
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