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 I love Donna Leon's recent book "Backstage" -- because it spotlights a writer writing about writing. This is possibly my favorite kind of book. (Leon's earlier essays, "Wandering Through Life," were just autobiographical anecdotes. I'd rather see her talking about narrative.)


Leon's brilliance is most obvious when she tackles a nursery rhyme, "Jack and Jill":


Leon uses the rhyme to examine the kind of work a reader does as he reads. The reader fills in gaps. Jack fell, not because of drunkenness, but because he is a clumsy kid. Jill's fall is surely linked with genetics. Since Jill is Jack's sister (probably), she is just as uncoordinated as he is. Leon then parodies various schools of literary criticism. A Freudian scholar might focus on the vaginal "hole" -- the well, which will be penetrated by the pail. A Marxist scholar might see an allusion to socioeconomic structures buried in the word "crown."

Then Leon takes flight. She finds fault with "Jack and Jill." There is no motive. We don't know *why* the pail of water is needed. Are the kids going to play a terrible prank on a third (unsuspecting) child? Without a "why," it's difficult to care. Leon lists some sentences: "I killed my neighbor." "I robbed my neighbor." "I envied my neighbor." Without motivation, the sentences seem somewhat arid. They *could* be engaging -- but a "because" is needed.

Leon says, additionally, that there needs to be a sense of authorial judgment, a kind of subtle, delicate judgment. The writer can't tell us directly how to feel about a character; this becomes irritatingly didactic. But consider if the authorial voice says, "Jack deservedly broke his crown." Or "Jack unfortunately broke his crown." An adverb can accomplish quite a bit. "Set the characters at play and make them say things that reveal their souls -- and perhaps the reader will respond to them, positively or negatively. It doesn't matter which, really. It's the response that's magic."

I think of Janet Leigh at the start of "Psycho." We know why she steals the money -- we can empathize. We can also recognize that the theft is an alarming lapse -- a stupid choice, an outgrowth of moral weakness. We're "on the hook." We have to see what happens next.

Who knew so much could spill out of a brief consideration of "Jack and Jill"?
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