Arguments And Methods In Timothy Findley's The Wars

Timothy Findley’s book The Wars is one that has many reviews based upon the methods he uses to convey world war one from various different viewpoints. For instance, Margaret Atwood reviews and writes about Findley’s novel in a chapter of her book “Second Words”. In this chapter she presents three reasons why The Wars is a big narrative occasion. Atwood approaches the novel with three arguments first, the importance of the publication. The second point she makes is how the novel is being critic in literary newspapers and third, the significance of the text itself. This paper will focus on an assessment of Margaret Atwood’s excerpt, specifically on her arguments and methods to prove the points she is making. Atwood starts off her chapter mentioning the significance of the publication of the novel. A company that only used to publish textbooks published The Wars and if they were to publish fiction it would be a discreet novel, Findley’s novel is not discreet
(Atwood, 290). By Atwood suggesting this, it makes the reader aware of the importance of knowing information about the publication of novels. Having this novel publish by a company that does not normally publish fiction shows how exceptional the novel was, and that they could not pass up the opportunity. The next point that Atwood makes is the importance of having a Canadian author publish their book by a Canadian publisher. She states that when a Canadian author goes through an American publisher, there are many cases where the book is not even noticed in its own country (Atwood, 291). Atwood makes a strong point when talking about publication, it is important to think about how the publication will promote a book and to what area of the world it is being promoted to. Atwood brings the readers attention to an idea that is not commonly thought of, and allows for a new perspective on the world of publication. Atwood moves into the next section of the chapter noting how The Wars has significance on the reviews in Canadian literature. Her argument in this section of the review is perplexed due to the extended amount of information provided. Atwood states the importance of The Wars is because of what it does it does for the element of reviews in Canada (Atwood, 291). Although after she has stated this the transition into her evidence is astray and leaves the reader questioning when Atwood is going to prove her point. Due to the background information she provides about the use of newspapers in reviewing, The Wars gets put aside for a moment. Even though she ultimately proves her point, it could have been stronger by mentioning any Canadians that reviewed the book. Nevertheless Atwood, having a section of her review about reviews was an effective methodology that supports the review in a whole. In the last section of Atwood’s review she writes about the importance of The Wars based on the book.
This part is where she spends a majority of the review discussing how the novel is successful (Atwood, 292). Atwood starts her argument off by suggesting that the novel is accomplished due to the fact that is it a genre that is not popular and is written by a serious writer (Atwood, 292). She also talks about how his book is one that creates experience and has a film narrative to it (Atwood, 293). Atwood has a strong argument due to the fact she gives examples of what aspects of the book emit a film perception. Along with this Atwood brings up a compelling point about the use of “you” and the method of the book. She indicates that Findley’s use of “you” could be the author or it could be the reader, due to this Atwood says the method of the book acts like a detective story (Atwood, 293). This evaluation was intriguing given that most of the readers would not have thought of the method of that book to be
this. In conclusion Margaret Atwood’s review on Timothy Findley’s book The Wars has many strong arguments with relevant evidence to prove her points. The way she develops her arguments through the use of secondary research reinforces what is stated. Her viewpoint on how publication is important on the success of a novel makes the reader aware of these issues. Atwood continues to take about a review within her review that makes her argument evident. However, if Atwood used a review that was done by a Canadian it could have made her point stronger. Finally, in this review Atwood ends with analyzing the book itself. In the section of her review she has strong arguments about the narrative and methods of the book that lead to a valid evaluation. Overall, this review has many well thought out and supported arguments that allow for a strong evaluation.