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Sunday, October 7, 2012Suck it, Eugenides I'll keep it short. My pal, the great Megan Abbott, recently posted this interview on facebook with Jeffrey Eugenides from the New York Times. Besides coming off as pompous and boring as his stories, Mr. Eugenides made an offhand remark that is both stupid and illogical: "Whenever I try to read a thriller or a detective novel I get incredibly bored, both by the language and the narrative machinery." The conceit that a novel is of quality solely based on subject matter is both ridiculous and ignorant. Perhaps someone needs to force Mr. Eugenides to make that argument against the work of James Lee Burke or Elmore Leonard. Leonard, by the way, was just awarded the The National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Somewhere in the last several decades, stars on the front of American lit have become pompous, effete dorks. As of late, books are often shelved and marketed as "lit" due to constraints of the lit genre, not the skill of the writer. In comparison, check out a similar interview with Michael Chabon, who seems like a completely cool guy, self-assured in his taste in popular culture and books. I only wish we had more like him. I loved his answer to what popular novels one should read. A terrific and very true reply.
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