The Fiction Class

Great for teachers and writers

This was a great book to read from a teacher's point of view. It's about growth, change and acceptance. At first I criticized the main character, but then I found myself growing with her as she grew with her adult fiction class.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

What Are You Thinking, Valtrajay?

I can't believe you found the writing of The Fiction Class to be "amature"! It is beautifully and sensitively done. I read a lot of books, and I was struck right from the beginning by the style of writing. I also really don't think you should write off a book just because it's done in the present tense.

The interwoven story lines between the class and the dying mother are inspired. I was immediately drawn into the plot and the well-delineated characters.

Well, anyway, you readers out there, please give The Fiction Class a try. You'll be happy you did. Good for book clubs, too.

By the way, I also love Arabella by Georgette Heyers as well as nearly every one of her other books.

Marian the Librarian

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Wisdom about writing and wisdom about mothers and daughters.

'The Fiction Class' is a beautiful book about a troubled mother-daughter relationship. Breen manages to write towards a genuine, wise resolution avoiding cliche. Arabella, the main character, is the teacher of a fiction workshop for adults. Breen introduces us to the members of the class, a series of characters who come together to form a family over the ten weeks the novel covers. The story of the Fiction Class weaves through the story of Arabella's complex and sometimes bitter relationship with her ailing mother. Breen brings the two threads together masterfully and uses them to illuminate each other with quiet wisdom. This is a genuine, beautifully written novel that resonates long after you have finished it.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Valtrajay's review

Let me put Valtrajay's review in perspective: would anyone accept a critical literary review from an illeterate reader? Really....."Pass tense" when it should be 'past tense', "Wendeys" when it should have read 'Wendys' ' and please find the word "Okayish" in any dictionary other than the review by Valtrajay. Readers please read this book and decide for yourself rather than make a decision about its worth from someone who is unable to write a literate review. Ingnorance is bliss, but let's hope we, and other authors, are not subjected to this type of reviewer's "bliss" again!

DULL

This book moved exceptionally slow and did not hold my attention at all. There was no climax and barely any conflict. A basic storyline with no twists or moments of excitement. So dull I had to force myself to finish it.

Good Story, Bad Writing

It wasn't just the present-tense layout that made me cringe, but the writing style in general seemed a bit amature. I know this is Breen's first book, and I could totally tell, because it didn't seem as developed as other novels I have read. In the book, she has little exerpts that the students write in her class, and also a short story that her mother writes and you get to read it...and it was even present tense in those stories! Not once was it pass tense or in a different format...The whole entire thing was present tense and it annoyed me like crazy. "Arabella sits down next to her mother as she gives her the Wendey's hamburger." I hated the style. However, the plot was okayish. There was a huge lack of action and it got a bit boring, but the ending was sensual and touching...it's mainly about a relationship between a mother and a daughter. A Great Mother's Day gift perhaps, but not if you're trying to learn from a "great" writer. Not the best work.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Selected for my reading group!

It has been awhile since I last read something so profound AND entertaining. The Fiction Class is funny, heartbreaking, suspensful, and informative.

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