cathschaffstump | Professorial Ruminations on Literature and the Break Out Novel (Reply)

First of all, no from Alexandra Machinist.

For our reading group, I’ve been pouring over the newest Michael Chabon book, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. The book is a hard hitting detective story in the Raymond Chandler tradition, set in an alternate reality where the Jews, fleeing from Europe’s holocaust, settle in Alaska. The story is based on the slim possibility that the US actually did what it suggested it might do during Roosevelt’s presidency. I’ll talk about the novel in greater detail when I give our reading group’s take on it on May 19th. However, I consider it to be a successful genre jumper and a breakout piece.

A few months ago in January, one of the mid-list authors on my friends’ list said one of her goals this year was to write a breakout novel, the novel that would transcend genre writing and reach out to the public in general. Chabon is clearly a writer who can make this leap, who can write within the confines of genre and win the Nebula, yet capture the imagination of larger than the typical genre audience. What are the characteristics of the breakout novel?

I think about the breakout novel a lot. I am an English professor with a strong interest in the literature of the fantastic. I’ve read good novels and bad novels in lots of genres. What do I think makes a genre book accessible to a wider audience? Is it the fickle finger of fate? Good marketing? I’m about to go all idealistic on you, so for those of you who are nuts-and-bolts, get-the-words-on-the-page kind of people, you may want to skip this next part. I provide a convenient break for you to do so shortly.

Also, I want to clarify. In spite of the direction this essay will go, I don’t believe the purpose of all books is to become “good literature.” Nor do I believe that everything that is taught at our institutions of higher learning is “good literature.” Let’s focus on that genre breaker, shall we? We’ll do this over a series of entries. It’ll be just like sitting in my literature class. Lucky you.

First we need to talk about how the world, and more importantly, the reader, defines what is worth reading.

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Originally published at Writer Tamago. You can comment here or there.