You know how there's this huge gulf between the kinds of stories "literature people" like and the kinds of stories "non-literature people" like? How you can't understand why anyone could possibly think, say, Rachel Cusk's "Outline Trilogy" is required reading when Emily Giffin at least writes books that actually make me feel joy? Well, I'm no George Saunders fan but I'd say this does a pretty good job of at least trying to bridge that gap. Three stars.
"A Rhetoric of Irony" by Wayne C. Booth (1974)
(1) I read this very slowly. Turns out, there's only so much irony one person can handle in one sitting; (2) If you have no interest in literature then you’ll probably feel intense hatred if you attempted to read this; (3) But if you did, you'd find the writing style surprisingly enjoyable, even as he never bothers to dumb things down; (4) I suppose if you wanted a lengthy defense of why irony isn't necessarily the insouciant societal cancer it's often made out to be, this would be the place to turn; (5) You might even be surprised to stumble upon existential discussions of meaninglessness and knowledge and truth and human communion and, briefly, even God; (6) Have you ever thought of irony as frighteningly powerful? Well I didn't, until I read this; (7) One of his main attacks is on the notion that works of literature mean whatever one perceives them as meaning (which I understand to be part of postmodernism and multiculturalism,) which particularly triggered me because I feel my formal English instruction was dominated by that philosophy, and I do not now believe it served anyone's brains well; (8) Can I assure you that you'll feel enriched and rejuvenated upon completing the book? No. I find right now that I just wish all thinking would stop: my eyes hurt. Three stars.
"A Little Book on Form" by Robert Haas (2017)
It's pretty excellent, packing a semester's worth of poetry instruction into 400 or so pages. If you go into it though, just understand it packs a semester's worth of poetry instruction into 400 pages. Four stars.