Lamenting The Lost Great Novel
17 Aug 2005, 1:38:32 pm
2 Comments
The literary world is wondering why the Greatest Work Of 2005 has yet to manifest itself. The subtext seems to be that marketability is not hindered by this -- plenty of big-name books are still selling like hotcakes -- but in an environment where moneymaking trumps quality, you're simply being droll by asking why the spaces formerly filled by great literature have been crammed full of chick-lit and novels-clearly-written-to-maximise-movie-options. If there is a great work of literature, it's not to be found at the big publishers. Where is it? It's either sitting in the author's garage with 500 other copies, lost deep within Lulu's database, or collecting dust while waiting for a seven or eight figure advance. Hopefully it'll appear before readers lose all hope in finding anything worthwhile at a bookstore.
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User Comments
 I'm just getting going in my advance reader's edition of Rick Moody's latest, The Diviners. It certainly merits at least an honorable mention. Odd that it was not mentioned by the article's author; odder still that the Little, Brown editor failed to mention it.
p.s. You might want to downsize those quotes so the close quote doesn't baseline shift the last line of a post. Posted by Sean, 08/23/2005 10:30:52 |
