The Luminous Solution review: “If you live your life with curiosity and intention this book is for you”

‘Other people’s creative lives have always fascinated me,” writes Sydney author Charlotte Wood in the preface to her latest book, describing “several shelves” in her writing room that hold volumes on “the nature of art and creativity, collections of interviews with writers and artists, how-to-write instruction manuals, discussions of the elements of fiction”. This broad but perennially popular literary sub-genre of “books about books” is one to which Wood’s own new release belongs. Having previously published a compendium of conversations with the likes of Christos Tsiolkas, Joan London and Kim Scott in 2016’s The Writer’s Room, the Stella Prize-winning novelist has now collected her own thoughts about creativity, art and writing into the series of essays that comprise The Luminous Solution. The book is, Wood says, “a synthesis of everything I’ve learned about my own creative impulse since I first began trying to write fiction more than 30 years ago”. As one of Australia’s best-known contemporary novelists, she has a wealth of material to draw on, reflecting on the challenges and rewards of her own career — including the writing of her last two books, The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend — with thoughtful intelligence. Elsewhere, she deeply considers topics ranging from language as “a writer’s paint” and the thorny issue of “relatability” in fiction, to issues such as the importance of community and of openness to lifelong learning. Much of this will resonate not only with readers of a writerly bent and those involved in their own creative work, but also people seeking to cultivate the kind of “rich inner life” that, Wood suggests, might help to see us through the difficulties of our current moment. Indeed, as Wood states, her book is “by no means addressed only to artists or writers”. “If you live your life with curiosity and intention — or would like to — this book is for you,” she writes. THE LUMINOUS SOLUTION Charlotte Wood (Allen & Unwin, $32.99)

The Luminous Solution review: “If you live your life with curiosity and intention this book is for you”

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