Boston Review: The Novel Is Not Dead.
“Again and again, the same self-serious, circuitous logic: the standard novel of today is decadent; it has lost touch with “reality”; it has become a set of meaningless conventions; it deserves to be exploded; we must invent new techniques, new “ways of seeing.” And yet we must return to “the real” as it used to be.” And, related, The Millions: Theory of Long Novels.
If I pick up a large tome, I expect to get more out of it than just a pat little moral at the finish. I expect to have had an immersive experience, one which reveals the human condition in elegant new ways. Celebrating the journey, in other words ... not the destination.
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I don’t read much ‘mainstream’ (non-genre) fiction, generally science fiction and mysteries/thrillers. If you want some outstanding authors—where by outstanding I mean great writers and not just storytellers, though they’re that too—pick up any Iain M. Banks, Ken Macleod or Charles Stross. Haven’t read too many of his other books but just finished rereading Neal Stpehenson’s Anathem and it’s simply fantastic.