Alongside reflections on his writing life, Cunningham shares tales of love and sexuality. In a chapter on the ‘music’ of words, he shows the predominance of ‘the hiss of “s”’ in some Cormac McCarthy, and how Marilynne Robinson’s flowing clauses have an effect ‘more like a cello than a drum’. As a Yale creative writing professor, Cunningham is used to giving advice, and there is plenty of it in these pages. The book is also flush with inspirational (or in some cases quite cringey) quotations pulled out between chapters. At his best, Cunningham gestures at the magic in writing; at his worst, he risks breaking the spell.