My dad-in-law sent me a link for this book, and I'm glad he did. While I don't love how the book was organized (it looked like it was organized into authors that Coles would then discuss, but it really wasn't organized in any recognizable way at all, from what I could tell), I plan to use a good bit of the content to re-shape the literature course I teach.
It's hard to summarize the content of a book like this. It doesn't have a plot, per se. Mostly, it discusses various authors and how they lived among the poor or otherwise underprivileged in order to better inform their writing and have compassion for these marginalized social groups. It made me appreciate good authors all the more, as so many of them put such careful thought and research into what they do, and truly try to identify with people with whom they might not otherwise cross paths.
After reading Coles's book, I determined that sitting in his classes as a student (he was a professor at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School) would be convicting and thought-provoking. I felt like a student as I read his words, and it made me long for another college class or two...at least for a minute.
It's hard to summarize the content of a book like this. It doesn't have a plot, per se. Mostly, it discusses various authors and how they lived among the poor or otherwise underprivileged in order to better inform their writing and have compassion for these marginalized social groups. It made me appreciate good authors all the more, as so many of them put such careful thought and research into what they do, and truly try to identify with people with whom they might not otherwise cross paths.
After reading Coles's book, I determined that sitting in his classes as a student (he was a professor at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School) would be convicting and thought-provoking. I felt like a student as I read his words, and it made me long for another college class or two...at least for a minute.
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