The Situation and the Story Tash Aw there is only one respectable

there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows

An unexpected message from a childhood friend sends Lyca searching her house’s mysterious attic

in a forest flyby

McClosky's illustrations are brilliant and filled with humor

at times dreamlike

The Situation and the Story Tash Aw there is only one respectableThe Art of Personal Narrative. All narrative writing transforms the raw material of life into a story that shapes experience and reveals meaning. In fiction, narrators may be unreliablebut in nonfiction, readers must believe the narrator is telling the truth. "The Situation and the Story" explores how writers find that truthful voice within themselves. Drawing on a century of memoirs and essays, Vivian Gornick examines how authors like Edmund Gosse,