Suppose a Sentence

A captivating meditation on the power of the sentence by the author of Essayism, a 2018 New Yorker book of the year.

In Suppose a Sentence, Brian Dillon, whom John Banville has called "a literary flâneur in the tradition of Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin", has written a sequel of sorts to Essayism, turning his attention to the oblique and complex pleasures of the sentence. A series of essays prompted by a single sentence - from Shakespeare to James Baldwin, John Ruskin to Joan Didion - this new book explores style, voice, and language, along with the subjectivity of reading. Both an exercise in practical criticism and a set of experiments or challenges, Suppose a Sentence is a polemical and personal reflection on the art of the sentence in literature.

©2020 Brian Dillon (P)2021 Tantor

A weird mixture: from great to trivial

Some of the chosen passages ring and resonate with incredible depth, and the biography around them adds spice. Some descend into trivial consumerism, and self-involved ramblings of perhaps talented authors on negligible subjects. For language lovers, on balance, I would mirror the three-star label, "pretty good." It served as a nice departure for brief stretches from my more disciplined nonfiction listenings.