In James Wood’s new collection of essays, The Nearest Thing To Life, Wood tightly argues the vast importance and meaning that fiction can command. Fiction, according to Wood, has the power to shape our lives, to teach us the realties of life through the telling of the most minute of details, and the unique ability to prevent one of the “shortcomings of history”: allowing repeated and secular resurrections of human life. This short yet rich collection blends together memoir, criticism, close and exquisite readings of some of the best works in the literary canon – as well as works outside the canon and in book form – a contagious passion for literature, and the connection literature can bring between life, death, writer, reader, and critic. #JamesWood #shortbookteviews #books #litcrit #thenearestthingtolife