Brian McDonald is one of the writing authors that I love to read. He has a way of breaking down concepts into simple, digestible concepts, without making you feel like he's "dumbing down" his intellect. Fans of MFM will doubtless recall that we gave a very favorable review to his last book, Invisible Ink, which looks at the structure behind stories.
Well, in his newest book, The Golden Theme, McDonald looks at single concept that he claims all great stories—those which help bring man up to his greatest potential--have in common.
The Golden Theme is simple to understand and to follow. Much of the book is unpacking the concepts of the central premise, providing extra examples to make sure you understand it clearly.
This is a book that's designed to talk about one ultimate theme, which is the main current that occurs in many (if not all) great stories. As such, it doesn't stray too far from the point, so it kind of feels a bit like a long essay in that regard. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, unless you're expecting to pick up a book on more varied elements of writing. (For that, of course, I would recommend McDonald's earlier work, Invisible Ink.)
As with his past book, I felt that McDonald holds your interest throughout the book. While it might have been a little more intriguing if the book had focused on a few more main concepts (say 5 Common Threads to Master Tales or something to this effect), I still found the book quite compelling.
Unlike Invisible Ink, you're not as likely to re-read The Golden Theme because it is so clearly on target for one main concept in storytelling. Once you get that concept down, it's very likely going to be written into the undercurrent of how you perceive stories and how you write them from then on.
With a price point of $12.95, it's not a bad price. With that said, considering the extremely targeted material and the brevity of the book, I think $9.95 might make it a little more likely for folks to pick this one rather than just check it out from the library.
While this was a much more targeted book than Invisible Ink, I felt that The Golden Theme was well worth the read and, as usual, Brian McDonald shows his insight and wisdom on the craft of writing in a way that's easy to absorb and utilize.
