By turns intimate, instructive, gossipy, curmudgeonly, elegant, hilarious, cunning, and consoling, the "Paris Review" interviews have come to be celebrated as classic literary works in their own right. Now, from the treasure trove of the archives, editor Philip Gourevitch has selected 20 of the most essential interviews for the first of a three volume set. 448 p. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

How does an author write a book? In this remarkably affordable collection by the editors of the Paris Review, the first of a three-volume series, 16 previously published interviews with major novelists, poets, and playwrights divulge how works of literature are created. A 1966 interview with Jorge Luis Borges addresses his superstitions related to colors and how he bases his characters' names on colors and deceased relatives. In an interview published in 1977, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. discusses how his military experience and master's degree in anthropology influence his writing. Vonnegut's most stunning comment is "There is no shortage of wonderful writers. What we lack is a dependable mass of readers." Other authors featured her include Ernest Hemingway, Rebecca West, Truman Capote, and Robert Stone. A bonus is that most writers identify their favorite books. This publication is highly recommended for public and academic libraries. Joyce Sparrow, Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas Cty., FL Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

You won't be able to get their rueful, witty, snappish, and thoughtful voices out of your head. Here is Dorothy Parker, breathtakingly funny, brilliant, and self-deprecating. Truman Capote purring, I am a completely horizontal author. I cannot think unless I'm lying down. Hemingway, recalcitrant and dismissive, dueling with George Plimpton in a revealing conversation containing the famous iceberg remark about writing: There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows. As for poets, Donald Hall speaks with an urbane T. S. Eliot, Elizabeth Spires with a bemusedly frank Elizabeth Bishop. Here, too, is an astonishing conversation with the erudite and gentlemanly Jorge Luis Borges, who speaks of Old Norse, Henry James, and the color yellow, and flinty Kurt Vonnegut remembering the bombing of Dresden and telling bad jokes. Several hundred of the Paris Review's justifiably celebrated literary interviews are available online, but these 16 exceptional slices of literary history belong in the form the interviewees devoted their lives to, namely a finely made book, always at hand, always compelling. DonnaSeaman. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.