Magic Hours: Essays on Creators and Creation

Author: Tom BissellPublisher: Believer MagazinePaperback:ISBN 10: 1936365766ISBN 13: 978-1936365760In Magic Hours, award-winning essayist Tom Bissell explores the highs and lows of the creative process. He takes us from the set of The Big Bang Theory to the first novel of Ernest Hemingway to the final work of David Foster Wallace; from the films of Werner Herzog to the film of Tommy Wiseau to the editorial meeting in which Paula Fox's work was relaunched into the world. Originally published in magazines such as The Believer, The New Yorker, and Harper's, these essays represent ten years of Bissell's best writing on every aspect of creation—be it Iraq War documentaries or video-game character voices—and will provoke as much thought as they do laughter.What are sitcoms for exactly? Can art be both bad and genius? Why do some books survive and others vanish? Bissell's exploration of these questions make for gripping, unforgettable reading. Amazon.com Review : In these ambitious and enthusiastic "Essays on Creators and Creation," journalist Tom Bissell explores the will-to-art through an expansive cast of makers working in a variety of media. From a reverent exploration of the "mirages" of filmmaker Werner Herzog to a vitriolic, almost embittered screed against the prolific historian Robert D. Kaplan, Bissell's collection--compiled from more than a decade's worth of magazine writing--offers an impressive range of emotion, an unflagging intellect, a constantly engaging style, and a menagerie of compelling subjects. Hemingway? Check. David Foster Wallace? Check. Iraq War films? A sitcom producer? The world's most prolific female video-game voice-over specialist? Check, check, check. And if the idea of a nonfiction artist's writing about other creators strikes you as charmingly self-referential, then "Writing About Writing About Writing"--Bissell's survey of other writers' how-to-write books--will leave you ensorcelled. --Jason Kirk From Bookforum Bissell is an assured and engaging first-person narrator, which is a rarer ability than many first-person writers know. While his body stands around, his line of thought is agile and ever-moving, from the observational to the philosophical, from the personal to the general. He is agreeable, even when the reader may disagree with him. — Tom Socca See all Editorial Reviews