Good-night, Prof, Love

TSP is the first John Rowe Townsend book I ever read. I’ve probably read it 2-3 times previously. Three, I think. I really love it. I’m sad to say that most of my copies of JRTs books are cheap paperbacks that I picked up while I was in England, and even though I bought them new, I have to be quite careful with them because the bindings are poor. And then, add to that, an unfortunate water bottle leakage last night, and I’ll be looking for a new copy of TSP. I’m still reading it, despite it being damp and now definitely coming apart. Luckily, it is available online at abe books.

Oh, but wait…this post is supposed to be about GOOD-NIGHT, PROF, LOVE. And boy do I have a few things to say about this book. It’s amazing. Truly amazing. There are pages and pages of straight dialogue without a single “she said” or “I said”. Seriously. And loads of innerdialogue too. And I’ll tell you what, it’s never confusing. There are hardly any transistions to speak of, either and if you, the reader, can’t keep up, well, too bad. Although, you find you can keep up! I seriously think that if you tried to write a book like this now and you did it well, an editor would call the style fresh and exciting. However, if you did it badly, an editor would say, “Are you a playwright because this reads like a play. You forgot the transitions and it’s mostly dialogue.” I’m not really sure why this works so well, but I can definitely see it NOT working in the hands of a lesser writer. I, for example, would certainly not want to try it! Maybe as a writing exercise, but not for a whole book. Anyway, since it’s a bit hard to describe, I suggest if you’re interested that you try to find a copy. Paperbacks are quite cheap on abe books, and you can’t go wrong with JRT.