num_pages: 207
description: Blending confessional criticism and anthropological autobiography Shields explores the power of literature (from Blaise Pascals Penses to Maggie Nelsons Bluets Renata Adlers Speedboat to Prousts Remembrance of Things Past) 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 to feel un-lifelike and archaic he revels in a new kind of art that is based heavily on quotation and consciousness. And he shares with us a final irony: he wants literature to assuage human loneliness but nothing can assuage human loneliness. Literature doesnt lie about thiswhich is what makes it essential.
language: English
title: How Literature Saved My Life
publisher: Knopf