The Tin Ear
By Patricia Ann Jones

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When a performer sings off key or hits a sour note on the piano, someone is sure to say, "Yikes she's got a tin ear." Would you believe that some writers, particularly early in their careers, write off key? They do. There are many ways to detect this off key writing.

Today, I decided to use myself in my book critic's hat, as a way to show you how you can train your own ears to recognize quality writing. Once you learn this secret, when you're asked, why you liked or didn't like a piece of prose, you'll have an informed opinion to offer.

My editor allows me a great deal of discretion in what books I will or will not review. This is because she trusts my opinion. Four years ago I stopped reviewing books I didn't like. Now, the only critiques or reviews I write are on works that I feel evidence a certain standard of writing.

So, what is it I'm looking for when I select a novel, biography, or a nonfiction work to review? The first thing a book must do is capture my attention and do it on the first page. With six or seven books staring me in the face I don't have time to read four or five chapters to see if the author knows his or her stuff. This may be a pretentious attitude, but I call it eye preservation.

An author can intrigue me with an opening sentence fine-tuned to its highest degree, with a well-defined setting using only enough description to set the tone, and/or a character deftly drawn. Another important quality, a criterion I use over and over, is does the author prick my imagination with a story that will excite a wide audience of readers. By this I mean, is the voice and style of this author clear and does he or she write with an incandescent imagery that suits the particular genre of the book. Most important to me, does this writer have an ear for good writing?

To prepare for this article, I went back over a book of clippings I keep and read each review to prove to myself that what I've written above is a true picture of how I select a quality work. Here are some quotes from my written reviews that show you how I listen to the writer's words.

Anne Michaels: "Fugitive Pieces"
"Michaels lifts her deftly drawn characters above the pain of human suffering with a voice that is at once clear and true and strikingly beautiful. She handles her historical information by clothing it in simile and metaphor. The images become immediate, physically palpable, and as electrifying as a spring storm."

Garrison Keillor: "Woebegon Boy"
"Keillor provides a sensory, evocative slice of life unknown to young readers and long forgotten by their elders. He also awakens us to the family values that made our nation great. His style and voice allow me to suspend my own beliefs and enter trembling with anticipation into his world of days gone by."

Barbara Wood: "The Prophetess"
"One of the qualities I prize in novelists is their ability to convey a sense of place. Wood's world travels have given her an uncanny understanding of landscapes and native peoples. Whether she's writing a scene in the Sinai, Rome, Paris, or a remote convent in Connecticut, she takes her readers along for the trip."

Olivia Goldsmith: "The Bestseller"
"The structure and style of this novel impressed me. I particularly enjoyed the provocative quotations beginning each chapter. One of these from Isaac Asimov, still rings in my ears. 'I write for the same reason I breathe because if I didn't, I would die.'"

Margaret Moseley: "Bonita Faye"
"Moseley's characterizations are deep and deceptive. Her players all have conflicted lives. Nothing is ever as it first appears. The emotions raised are sincere without being maudlin. Best of all, this author offers a startling fresh voice and a literary original you'll want to share with friends."

Charles Frazier: "Cold Mountain"
"The author shows us a slice of Americana not found in history books. He does this using the intriguing imagery and vernacular of the hill folk of North Caroline, and with a style that dares to break most of the rules for novel writing. Frazier's voice is as haunting as his original similes and metaphors: 'The mountains stood gray in the dusk, as pale and insubstantial as breath blown on glass.'"

A book critic must have ears that not only hear but recognize the nuances of the writer's words. Someone asked me recently if anybody could develop an ear for good writing. I had to think about that. I now have an answer. Yes, anyone can develop an ear for quality in any genre. But to do so, they must teach themselves to put a finger on the author's pulse, feel the heart beat, then listen for the emotions, the turn of phrases, the ring of truth (credibility), word usages, the smooth transitions. Once you do this, style, voice, the immediacy of the work, speaks to you with an unmistakable clarity.

Jones is a published writer & a book critic for The Tulsa World newspaper

COPYRIGHT MAY 2002 Patricia A. Jones All Rights Reserved
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