Reading McNovels in America
If you're American, would you be inclined to buy, or even to read, books written by someone with this attitude:
Picoult has the luxury of pandering to her own interests and choosing her readers, such as the Australians, whom she praises with "... readers in Australia prefer a certain kind of book: one that's meaty, raises discussion and makes them think. In other words, a book like mine." Really? Do all Australians and [insert almost any nationality except her own] read high literature? None like "a summer read" or just something trashy to pass time and provide some harmless pleasure? Maybe the readers of Picoult's books want weighty matters, unresolved, vague and controversial, but that doesn't mean all readers must feel the same, nor all writers choose the same subjects and style. Why the indictment?
But Americans also tend to look for the quick, digestible McNovel: the one with the happy ending, the one with chapters you can read in one bathroom break, the one you've forgotten by the time you turn the last page.I've thought long and hard before posting about this issue. The quotation is from Jodi Picoult: Going Global. The subject is one my book club members mutter about almost every month. "It was a fast read!" one reports gladly. "There was nothing to it!" another complains. Then I explain, "Now, this is a commercial novel and the one we read last time is what I mean by 'literary'."
Picoult has the luxury of pandering to her own interests and choosing her readers, such as the Australians, whom she praises with "... readers in Australia prefer a certain kind of book: one that's meaty, raises discussion and makes them think. In other words, a book like mine." Really? Do all Australians and [insert almost any nationality except her own] read high literature? None like "a summer read" or just something trashy to pass time and provide some harmless pleasure? Maybe the readers of Picoult's books want weighty matters, unresolved, vague and controversial, but that doesn't mean all readers must feel the same, nor all writers choose the same subjects and style. Why the indictment?
posted by Georganna Hancock M.S. | 10:14 AM
5 Comments:
That's a good point.
I get a little tired of being lumped in together with "All Americans"...we do have a bad reputation, it seems, and that's really sad, but I don't think we're stupider or lazier or anything else. We need to be measured as individuals, for our own worth. Anyway, I don't see what's wrong with a nice, pleasant tale to pass the time once in awhile? Does everything we read have to be heavy and "smart"? But then, that gets into a whole new argument, doesn't it? :)
While I wouldn't want a steady diet of them, short, quick-to-read stories do have their place. If I'm travelling and don't care if I leave a book behind, if I'm by a pool and don't care if the book gets wet or ruined, these are the types of books I would read.
When my kids were babies, I would read these kinds of stories from time to time because they are the kind of book that it doesn't matter where you are when you have to put the book down. When you pick it up again, there isn't any trying to get back into the mood or the thoughts of the characters.
Personally, I think it's unbefitting of a writer to put down any type of writing as it all has it's place.
Just as a good diet isn't ruined by a desert of store bought chocolate cake, or a wine lover isn't corrupted by a glass of beer, a reader who loves all kind of literature isn't going to be ruined by reading candy.
Well-said, ladies. Thanks for the visits and comments. I love a cheap thrill as much as anyone else, but when I want to learn something more about a subject, I reach for the "big books". I could take this diatribe against American reading tastes much easier if it came from a critic.
No McBooks here. When my youngest was in the hospital (he was dying but we did not know that until our last 10 days in hospital)I asked my husband to bring me my Laura Ingalls Wilder books. I didn't have to concentrate too hard but it was wonderful going over what should be a person's goals in life.
Of course, I'm a geek. I ready history and psychiatric case studies and books about the plague and Hot Zone because I'm interested.
Unfortunately my children aren't readers even though I read to them from birth to 12 years of age. My older son is reading Harry Potter 7.
I know what you mean Janice. My mother was never without a book and I read at her knee on and off until the day she died. I've often said that were it not for her love of books then we might have been rich. :) Our house was always covered with books and a couple of times each year we would look around and sigh and say "we really need to get rid of some of these books" and then we would go on about our business of reading everything we could get our hands on.
My point is that I read to my child from birth, I prided myself on setting a good example. It breaks my heart that he doesn't have the slightest inkling of what it is like to lose yourself in a novel. I've been having to read textbooks for so long now it's hard for me to remember the last novel I lost myself in. oh, wait it was Ahab's Wife! I can't remember the author's name but it was without a doubt one of the most well-written books I have ever read!I wish everyone would read it. Even if it fiction it made you see a softer side of captain ahab and offered a possible different justification for his obsession. I wish everyone would read it. it's out in paperback now.
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