How novels work

How Novels Work
John Mullen
Oxford University press
£7.99


Why does Ian McEwan give away in advance what will happen in Atonement? What does Donna Tartt's The Secret History have in common with Daniel Daeoe's Moll Flanders? Why is Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time printed in sans serif format?

Blowed if I know ...Though you will after reading this guide by Mark Mullan, author of The Guardian's Elements of Fiction weekly column. And whilst most of the books studied here are of the literary bent the lessons learnt apply to fiction in general. And there are a number of pop-fiction books included for analysis-Ripley Under Ground and From Russia with Love to name but two.

It makes for an interesting read - After all a novel is a collection of words arranged in a narrative that creates a world detached from reality and yet, when done well, this world holds us in a ultra reality, the characters become cherished friends, flesh and blood people of the id. We readers knows the story is fiction, an imaginative fabrication as we read and yet somehow we get sucked into the story and an emphatic bond is formed.A good work of fiction can enrich us and leave us more developed people than we were when we started the fiction.

The book, unlike the weekly Guardian column which concentrated on specific books, split the chapters into subjects such as beginnings, the voice, the climax and looks at these aspects of several titles. It's not surprisingly a heavy read and I did think I had learned some interesting points from the book. The section on plot devices is especially illuminating. “I try to ask some of the essential questions about the art of fiction."the author writes. " Is realism real? How do we define a successful metaphor? What is a character? When do we recognise a brilliant use of detail in fiction?”. The problem with general discussions about fiction is that it is hard enough to write about the details of one novel, let alone to comprehend an entire mode. But Mullen does so and does so with gusto.

The book has, I believe, only been published in the UK but can of course be got from Amazon and shipped around the world.