A Muse and a Maze: Writing as Puzzle, Mystery, and Magic

Product Description With his characteristic talent for finding connections between writing and the stuff of our lives, Peter Turchi ventures into new and even more surprising territory. In A Muse and a Maze, Turchi draws out the similarities between writing and puzzle-making and its flip-side, puzzle-solving. As he teases out how mystery lies at the heart of all storytelling, he uncovers the magic—the creation of credible illusion—that writers share with the likes of Houdini and master magicians. In Turchi’s associative narrative, we learn about the history of puzzles, their obsessive quality, and that Benjamin Franklin was a devotee of an ancient precursor of sudoku called Magic Squares. Applying this rich backdrop to the requirements of writing, Turchi reveals as much about the human psyche as he does about the literary imagination and the creative process. Review “Turchi invites us to think about books as mysteries unfolding in time, giving us clues that we piece together.”—― Washington Post “One of the country’s foremost thinkers on the art of writing.…Turchi argues that writers are like magicians who aim to lead us to a state of wonder.”—― Houston Chronicle “Altogether stimulating.”—― Brain Pickings “Consistently engaging, lively, and thought provoking. The interactive element is also a delight, as there are actual puzzles scattered throughout (answers are provided in the back) to demonstrate the challenges and rewards offered by puzzles—and by good writing.…Readers and puzzle lovers should find much of value.”—― Publishers Weekly “My favorite book about literature. . . . Anyone who likes books should read it.”—― Chris Offutt, author of No Heroes “A brilliant book on writing craft, providing the reader with a new way to think about composing fiction. It’s also simply a delight to read–smart, well organized, and full of muscular writing and funny anecdotes.”—― Robert Boswell, author of Tumbledown “The wide-ranging connections Turchi draws are convincing, provocative, and not infrequently funny, drawing the reader into a labyrinth of reflection where each turn brings a new surprise.”—― Santa Fe New Mexican “He’s done it again. Peter Turchi, the best-selling author who inspires artists, designers, and anyone trying to understand how to capture an audience’s imagination through storytelling, has written a book that aligns the art of literature with puzzle creation and illusions.”—― World Literature Today “Turchi combines puzzles and discussions of magic tricks as well as conventional literary analysis to show how arranging information to deepen the sense of mystery can make writing more interesting.”—― Chicago Reader “A glorious craft book—absolutely delightful.”— ― Julia Larios “Full of lush illustrations, embedded puzzles, and notes on Harry Houdini, Alison Bechdel, tangrams, labyrinths, and sudoku.”― Fiction Advocate “To leave readers slightly bewildered, to leave them with some questions answered but also with the understanding that other questions are unanswerable, to challenge readers to be satisfied with uncertainty – that’s exactly what Turchi encourages in this book.”― Numéro Cinq “But as much as A Muse & a Maze seeks to explore the inner workings of the craft of writing, the book isn’t interested in pulling aside the curtain on the art form’s intrinsic wondrousness. If anything, Turchi’s collection of citations, motivations, riddles and games yields as many questions as it answers.”― Mountain Xpress “Informed and informative....thoughtful and thought provoking.”― Midwest Book Review “Turchi combines puzzles and discussions of magic tricks as well as conventional literary analysis to show how arranging information to deepen the sense of mystery can make writing more interesting.”― Chicago Reader “The tension between these concepts―puzzle and mystery―forms the center of Turchi’s learned, funny, and uncategorizable book, part writing guide, part literary criticism, and part playful compendium of tr