How to Tell a Story and Other Essays (book review)

by Richard Subber | May 2, 2023 | Books, Joys of reading, Language

something to do with blue jays…

Book review:

How To Tell A Story and Other Essays

by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) (1835-1910)

Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York

1904

You’ve probably read some of Mark Twain’s stuff, or at least, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. By the way, if you’re not familiar with his short story, “What Stumped the Blue Jays,” you should give it a try.

This old Twain collection (Vol. XXII of The Writings of Mark Twain) caught my eye because Twain is a story teller non pareil and because Twain’s command of the language just about matches the exquisite artistry of H. L. Mencken. I freely imagined that Twain might have a lot to teach me about how to tell a story and otherwise string really good sentences together.

I hasten to mention that I am not disappointed. There are 15 utterly didactic segments in this collection, plus a biographical sketch of Twain that is indeed readable.

I recommend as a standout “Traveling With A Reformer,” an especially mordant piece that confirms much that you know about human nature, and suggests some reasons to hope for improvement—or at least gives you some relief from our current deadly exposure to most of the baser elements of said human nature.

Oh my. Think about the possibilities if Twain were alive today, doing his evening show on NPR, giving his honest-to-gosh take on what’s going on in the halls of government in America.

Oh well. He’s dead. Grab this book, and give your spirit a lift.

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iambic pentameter, y’know?

da DUH, da DUH, and stuff…

“In search of” (my poem)

click here

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Above all: Poems of dawn and more with 73 free verse poems,

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