Thursday, December 08, 2011

Browbeating ...

... The Death of the Middlebrow Novel - Commentary Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Time magazine, the press secretary for middlebrow thought in America, has now officially abandoned its readers. A fantasy, an unfinished philosophical jawbreaker, two mysteries, a collection of cartoons, a far-fetched debut, and a graphic novel — these are the “best books” it can recommend to readers with limited time for reading and a non-specialist interest in new fiction? Where are the big fat reads? The thick novels, thick with characters and incident, in which readers can lose themselves? 
Jonathan Franzen tried to write such a novel last year in Freedom, although he insisted that his nearly 600-page book — in the 19th century it would have been called a triple-decker — belonged “solidly in the high-art literary tradition.” (It didn’t.)


Well, at least they didn't pick Ed King.

2 comments:

  1. Why aren't they more worked about Lev Grossman naming GRRM's book #1 without disclosing that Martin blurbed THE MAGICIANS? That's the true journalistic disgrace here.

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  2. I left that for you to mention, Ed. I didn't want to jump the gun on you.

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