Books : The Writing Class

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Author name: Jincy Willett

: The Writing Class
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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780312330668
ISBN number: 0312330669
Label: Thomas Dunne Books
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: June 10, 2008
Publishing house: Thomas Dunne Books
Release Date: June 10, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 70867
Studio: Thomas Dunne Books



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Product Description:


Amy Gallup is gifted, perhaps too gifted for her own good. Published at only twenty-two, she peaked early and found critical but not commercial success. Now her former life is gone, along with her writing career and beloved husband. A reclusive widow, her sole companion a dour, flatulent basset hound who barely tolerates her, her daily mantra Kill Me Now, she is a loner afraid to be alone. Her only bright spot each week is the writing class that she teaches at the university extension.

This semester’s class is full of the usual suspects: the doctor who wants to be the subsequent Robin Cook, the overly enthusiastic repeat student, the slacker, the unassuming student with the hidden talent, the prankster, the know-it-all…. Amy’s seen them all before. But something is very different about this class---and the clues begin with a scary phone call in the middle of the night and obscene threats instead of peer evaluations on student writing assignments. Amy soon realizes that one of her students is a very sick puppy, and when a member of the class is murdered, everyone becomes a suspect. As she dissects each student’s writing for clues, Amy must enlist the help of everyone in her class, including the murderer, to find the killer among them.

Suspenseful, extremely witty, brilliantly written, unexpectedly hilarious, and a joy from start to finish, The Writing Class is a one-of-a-kind novel that rivals Jincy Willett’s previous masterpieces.





Customer Reviews
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - 4-1/2 stars for whodunit that's a B+
The Writing Class by Jincy Willett is an original whodunit with humour and style. Amy Gallup peaked too soon as a writer and has been reduced to teaching fiction writing to adults through the University Extension office. She lives a lonely life with her cranky Bassett Alphonse and does all that she can to remain an misanthropic recluse. Her newest class of wannabe writers has potential from the uptight former English teacher to the slick doctor and the homemaker. They mesh together well, some of the writing is actually good, and Amy, for the very first time in forever, has something to look forward to. Until one of them starts playing malicious practical jokes that escalate to murder, and now they are all under suspicion and desperate to discover which of them has decided to write the ultimate murder mystery. I genuinely enjoyed reading this book. Willett's writing is both humorous and deeply human. She even manages to give some great lectures on how to write while entertaining with an intriguing mystery. I found myself staying up late unable to put it down until the murderer was revealed.


Rated by buyers 5 out of 5 stars - A perfect literary mystery
One reviewer complained that the novel turns into a whodunit, and that is true. So if you do not like that kind of thing, you won't like this book. If you do, however, this is perfection of the genre. I was spellbound from the very first class. I used to teach writing at a Community College, so I really identified with the main character and her mixture of dread and sincere desire to teach. Willett finesses the difficult problem of showing you bad writing without writing badly admirably. The little stories are so perfect for the characters who wrote them, that they are good in that way and interesting for that reason. My only complaint about this work is that I think the title will put people off just as the title of her previous novel, "Winner of the National Book Award," probably did. The previous book was the best treatment of sexual power struggles and that I have ever read. You sure wouldn't imagine that from the title. Here again, the title leads you to expect some silly character study of people in a writing class, instead of a really fun murder mystery. It is sort of like the title of Amy Gallup's blog, "Go Away." Willett is a mysterious character herself. How can a person who writes this well withhold her talent from the world? She has only written two novels and a collection of short stories, and all of these are so satisfying.


Rated by buyers 4 out of 5 stars - A class by itself
This is metafiction of the mildest sort, one that telegraphs the epiphany of the main character by talking abot similar false epiphanies of a character in a short story under discusion of the class. Like "Winner," it's funny, rueful and sharp. The mystery isn't great, but the main character, Amy is. I think the format, however, makes it difficult to differentiate among the many characters thrown at us all at once -- a necessity given the centrality of the class to the narrative. Otherwise, I quite liked it, and I stayed up to finish it on a Saturday night.




Rated by buyers 3 out of 5 stars - Witty writing, keeps you reading, but lacks depth of character
This is a decent mystery. The plot slowly builds, introducing (initially from the point of view of a very twisted, but unidentified, student) a writing class and its teacher. Several of the students (along with the teacher) have odd twits to their personalities, making the whole endeavor a little creepy.

[An aside--while the book does have its chuckles, it is by no means hilarious. Stephanie Plum is not going to loose her title of queen of the hilarious crime solvers to anyone in this book. If you want roll on the floor laughter in a mystery, buy Janet Evonovich.]

However, as a traditional mystery, it does a good job, The author slowly ratchets up the tension as one of the students makes threatening comments on another student's paper, sends odd e-mails, and plays increasingly dangerous pranks. The teacher quickly realizes it is one of the students. Soon, the students themselves realize what is going on. However (for reasons that are not well explained) they have come to care so much about the class, that they demand it continue, even knowing that one of their number is seriously deranged. The reader is made to keep guessing which of the students it is--very Ten Little Indians.

About two-thirds of the way through the book, the pranks apparently result in the death of one of the students. Now the police are involved, and the risks to the students dramatically increase. Yet they continue to meet anyway. Of course, the mystery is ultimately solved, and order is restored.

While the book had no problem keeping my interest, I ultimately felt cheated. There is significant development of the teacher--but the students who are harassed, the student who is killed, and not even the murderer are ever given enough character that we either care about or understand them. When the victim died, I had to go back to the beginning to figure out who he was. Same with the scene in which the murderer is revealed. This is not a good sign. Mysteries need to make you care about the victims, the sleuth, and the perpetrator. I liked and felt I got to know the teacher--but not anyone else.

Good read; not a great mystery. A true three star book.


Rated by buyers 1 out of 5 stars - The Writing Class doesn't deliver
This book caught my eye because it was a novel/mystery about two things I love - teaching and writing. I thought it was a unique concept and I couldn't imagine how a writer could conceive of a mystery from this platform. Well, I shouldn't have bothered.

Amy is the writing teacher and her evening adult class is composed of a wide array of characters, each with a different expertise, profession and writing background. I thought the development of characters would be rich. I was wrong. I thought there might be snippets of information on writing - I was wrong. I thought the mystery might be suspenseful and intriguing - I was wrong.

It takes 200 pages of this 330 page tome, for the author to get to the mystery. Sure some pretty odd pranks have gone on, but the reader never things about a murder. Once a classmate is found dead, the intense speculation begins. For me, the emotional connection with the characters was never established enough that I cared. I didn't care about the murdered individual. I didn't care about the rest of the characters and I wasn't even that curious about who the murderer was.

Other reviewers say this book was hilarious. Are you kidding? Yes, there are some amusing scenes, but no hilarity. The book just drones on and on. The chapters are short, which makes the reading easy, but the plot languishes and the characters are dull. Even the end is a total disappointment.

My advice? Don't waste your time with this one. The Writing Class is just a trail of breadcrumbs leading nowhere.

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