How can/do you summarize a book?

Question

How can/do you summarize Victor Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning? The first half of the book basically talks about Frankl's experiences in concentration camps. It does not exactly contain a plot or anything. He also throws in his own insights and philisophy throughout his book. How do I summarize his experiences as well as philosophy and make it sound, well, like a summary and not analysis?

Answer 1

there's a pretty good summary here
http://www.answers.com/topic/man-s-search-for-meaning

Answer 2

You basically summarized the book right there! Try to bring everything down to a few short sentences: Rather than going into detail about his experiences, say something like, "After many difficulties and horrendous experiences..." If his philosophy has a unified idea, bring it down to one sentence. Incidentally, you can do this with most philosophies. A summary basically is an analysis, just short and without your opinion on the thing.

Good luck!

Answer 3

How to Write a Book Review

These links are essentially the same, just choose the one that makes the most sense to you..!!!

The book report you write should be four paragraphs long. Remember to use correct conventions (margins, indent paragraphs, capitalization, punctuation etc.)

http://www.kyrene.k12.az.us/staff/gmeade/how_to_write_a_book_report.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_11249_write-book-report.html

How to Write a Book Report (Upper Elementary School level)

http://www.infoplease.com/homework/wsbookreportelem.html

How to Write a Book Report (Middle and High School level.)

http://www.infoplease.com/homework/wsbookreporths.html

Book Reports and Summaries

http://homeworktips.about.com/od/writingabookreport/a/report.htm

Compose a Thesis Statement

http://members.tripod.com/~lklivingston/essay/thesis.html

Basic Structure

http://members.tripod.com/~lklivingston/essay/

Literary Terms

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/

Good luck.

Kevin, Liverpool, England.

Answer 4

Genre
Character Introduction (Protagonist, Antigonist, Support, etc.)
Plot or Conflict
Climax
Resolution
Conclusion