Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative
Author: Jane Alison
Publisher: Catapult
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Note: Trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.
Cover Description
As Jane Alison writes in the introduction to her insightful and appealing book about the craft of writing: “For centuries there’s been one path through fiction we’re most likely to travel ― one we’re actually told to follow―and that’s the dramatic arc: a situation arises, grows tense, reaches a peak, subsides. . . . But: something that swells and tautens until climax, then collapses? Bit masculo-sexual, no? So many other patterns run through nature, tracing other deep motions in life. Why not draw on them, too?”
W. G. Sebald’s The Emigrants was the first novel to show Alison how forward momentum can be created by way of pattern, rather than the traditional arc ― or, in nature, wave. Other writers of nonlinear prose considered in her “museum of specimens” include Nicholson Baker, Anne Carson, Marguerite Duras, Jamaica Kincaid, Clarice Lispector, Gabriel García Márquez, Susan Minot, David Mitchell, Caryl Phillips, and Mary Robison.
Meander, Spiral, Explode is a singular and brilliant elucidation of literary strategies that also brings high spirits and wit to its original conclusions. It is a liberating manifesto that says, Let’s leave the outdated modes behind and, in thinking of new modes, bring feeling back to experimentation. It will appeal to serious readers and writers alike.
TL;DR Review
Meander, Spiral, Explode is a quick, fun, interesting look at all the different patterns that appear in narrative.
For you if: You like to read about writing and want to expand your definition of plot.
Full Review
I’ve been meaning to read Meander, Spiral, Explode since I got it from Catapult back in March of 2019. I’m glad I finally did! This is a quick little book that made me think more deeply about stories’ plots, and it’s going to help me continue to read more deeply in the future.
This is a craft book, aka a book about writing (specifically fiction, in this case). Alison starts by proposing that there are a ton of alternatives to the typical exposition / rising action / climax / denouement structure that dominates teachings about writing today. And that those alternatives often follow shapes commonly found throughout the universe, like fractals, waves, and spirals. Then she goes through each of the shapes she’s observed one by one, citing examples that already exist in published works.
She picked great examples, although I personally wish that I had read at least a few of them before reading this book; I think that would have made her points hit home even more. But still, they were wonderfully demonstrative and carefully explained. I was also joyfully fascinated by literary examples with alternative shapes that existed alongside the “typical” plot structure rather than instead of it. The things that writers can do is astounding to me.
Immediately after reading this book, I read two great examples of Alison’s points: Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson and Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo. They both had patterns to them that Alison described; especially Girl, Woman, Other, which certainly does not move linearly forward in time or follow the experiences of one or a few central characters.
I expect to think about Alison’s points often as I read fiction in the future, and also as I contemplate writing my own someday. If you, too, are an avid reader and active or potential writer, pick this book up.
Trigger Warnings
None
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