A muse and a maze

the long version

"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"-- ""Turchi explores how every piece of writing is a kind of puzzle, offers tangrams as a model for presenting complex characters; suggests labyrinths as an alternative to the narrative line, and argues that readers and writers, like puzzle solvers, not only tolerate but find pleasure in difficulty"--Provided by publisher"--