How Literature Saved My Life
David Shields
<p>"Reading <i>How Literature Saved My Life </i>is like getting to listen in on a really great, smart, provocative conversation. The book is not straightforward, it resists any single interpretation, and it seems to me to constitute nothing less than a new form." --Whitney Otto<br>  <br> In this wonderfully intelligent, stunningly honest, painfully funny book, acclaimed writer David Shields uses himself as a representative for all readers and writers who seek to find salvation in literature. <br>  <br> Blending confessional criticism and anthropological autobiography, Shields explores the power of literature (from Blaise Pascal's <i>Pens&eacute;es </i>to Maggie Nelson's <i>Bluets,</i> Renata Adler's <i>Speedboat</i> to Proust's<i> Remembrance of Things Past</i>) to make life survivable, maybe even endurable. Shields evokes his deeply divided personality (his "ridiculous" ambivalence), his character flaws, his woes, his serious despairs. Books are his life raft, but when they come...