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The Nation's Pulse
Stranger to Fiction
Trying to remember why I ever read novels.
Some months ago the novelist Philip Roth told an interviewer that he had stopped reading fiction. Here was arguably America’s greatest living novelist confessing that he had lost interest in novels and short stories, and much preferred to read history or biography.
“I’ve wised up,” said Roth. Beyond that, he did not elaborate.
I’ve been telling people the same thing for years. (Though, admittedly, I’m no Philip Roth, so they don’t really care.) I would have to think long and hard to come up with the title of the last novel I read. I know I started several, books praised by friends or a noted reviewer, only to find that I could not make it beyond the opening chapters. Twice I have attempted to slog through Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian only to be turned back exhausted by the fourth chapter. “There is probably a terrific story here,” I’d find myself muttering, “if only I could locate it in this dense underbrush of violet biblical prose.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if this lack of interest in the unreal wasn’t a symptom of middle age. I am not nearly as old as Roth, but I am probably as irritable and impatient. Novels strike me as diversions for the young. “It’s something they say a lot in publishing, apparently,” notes writer Zoe Williams, “that once you turn 40, you start reading biographies.” As a teen I could idle away months savoring fat novels like Look Homeward, Angel and Anna Karenina. I found their bulk in no way daunting. After all, I was young; I had nothing but time. Today, with more days behind than before me and the stacks of must-read books growing taller, I haven’t the time to dedicate to a Moby Dick, even if I wanted to…which I don’t. I think, too, that in my youth I believed novels possessed some almost magical power, that they had secrets to reveal about how to navigate through life’s tempests. I was wrong. Perhaps what I should have been reading was a good advice columnist.
Tom Wolfe has been predicting the imminent death of the novel since the 1960s, when it began its long slide into irrelevancy, shying away from its traditional purpose — a good story well told — to become a showcase for the author’s ego. In an attempt to halt that slide, and to jolt the novel back to its traditional roots in social realism, Wolfe wrote the masterful The Bonfire of the Vanities. It was a valiant effort, but the job proved beyond the abilities of one man. I couldn’t finish A Man in Full or I Am Charlotte Simmons either.
A MORE LIKELY REASON for the decline of the contemporary novel is the excellent work being done in the genre of nonfiction. Literary journalism, history, and biography may indeed illuminate our current predicament in ways that absurdist, minimalist, post-modernist, magical-realist — in other words, contemporary — fiction is unable to. Odd then, that among the elder literary statesmen (Roth accepted) the novel is still the reigning champ, while nonfiction remains a second-class citizen. The Nobel Prize may as well be called the Novel Prize.
I can still recall a time when novelists were expected to address the Big Questions. I am thinking of the great political novels of the twentieth century, Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, Borowski’s This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman, Solzhenitsyn’s A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch. This sort of novel lost favor with academics among whom it was considered insufficiently literary. And judging from the ideas held by most writers and academics, this was undoubtedly a good thing.
Still, there are some novels I am glad to have read, and would eagerly recommend to anyone. Everyone should read Catch-22 at least once in his life (I’ve read it twice), if only because it is the funniest thing ever written in any genre. I am also happy to recommend Slaughterhouse 5, Wise Blood, and A Confederacy of Dunces, for anyone who likes their literature with laughs.
Roth predicts that soon the number of novel readers will be in the range of Latin poetry readers. That seems a bit of an exaggeration. College students, at least, will still be forced to read novels. Though at this stage in my life, I have no idea why.
About the Author
Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (142) | Leave a comment
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Richard Baker| 2.2.12 @ 6:27AM
I'm 59 and since my Army days I have been meaning to read Julius Caesar's "Commentaries on the Gallic Wars". Know it's not a novel but after reading ALL of Arthur C. Clarke's books and the Tom Clancy books AND the jillion other novels over the years from Hemingway to Steinbeck to Faulkner, and so many other authors, I still prefer "Non-fiction" because like music and literature in the modern world, nobody seems to have an original thought, anymore.
Brian Mc| 2.2.12 @ 6:43AM
It's available online, Richard. It's a great read and Gutenburg Press offers many others. The "Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant" is also in my 'Favorites'. Just a side note; why are we seeing Tide ads in Spanish on this website? Can we expect ads in Chinese, next?
Dai Alanye | 2.2.12 @ 10:01AM
Memoir and autobiography are branches of fiction, so in Caesar's Commentaries you get both.
The percentage of fact varies from work to work, of course. Grant's great effort, written late due to a need for income, is probably in the 95+ range, while Cellini's auto-b contains more fantasy than fact. Obama's Dreams ranks with Cellini. As for Caesar, I don't know, but the man was a politician, wasn't he?
Al Adab| 2.2.12 @ 10:36AM
As an author yourself, are there any major writers today who rise to the level of say a Solzynitzen (sp) or Melville or Tolkein? Writers whos works express depth of experience and insight rather than simply entertainment value? Perhaps though such ones are few and far between while most are simply for popular consimption.
W | 2.2.12 @ 11:00AM
Al Adab,
If not history or biography I read detective/mystery instead of what passes for literature today. You may like Ralph McInerney's books, writes mysteries set in Notre Dame/Chicago area. He was the St Thomas Aquinas professor of philosophy at Notred Dame, very conservative, and blends the philosophy with his mysteries.
Al Adab| 2.2.12 @ 2:39PM
W:
Just took a good look at my library and noticed most of the novels are either the classics (Moby Dick, War & Peace, Two Cities, Northwest Passage, Mohicans, Etc.) or are Mitchner, Wouk or Sci-Fi from Asimov, Niven, Clarke, Herbert and for fun, Turtledove. That's about the extent of my novels with the ones I mentioned above. I would enjoy this conversation with Dai if we can get him involved.
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 2:47PM
Al: you like Turtledove, read Tom Kratman. See below.
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 5:56PM
By the way, an immediate answer to Mr. Orlet: "Always make your enemies by intention, never by mistake." Great words to live by, and they are from Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man, the first Science Fiction Novel to win the Hugo. The novel is also spine-tinglingly thrilling, as is Bester's other masterpiece, "The Stars Our Destination."
Chris, you've been reading the wrong novels. Heigh thee hence and obtain Kratman's "Caliphate." Then you'll have three great novels to go through.
W| 2.2.12 @ 6:02PM
Al,
Did you see the Cheers episode when Sam decided to read War & Peace to in five days impress Diane and get his GED. He asked the boys in the bar how many pages, Cliff the mailman said it weighed 2 lbs. Coach told Sam, forget it nobody can read six ounces a day.
Al Adab| 2.2.12 @ 6:30PM
W:
Never watched the show. TV is good for baseball however. That aside, the story anecdote is not far from true. Ahhh, Democracy.
W| 2.2.12 @ 6:48PM
Al,
What team do you like?
Al Adab| 2.2.12 @ 7:02PM
Teams.
As a purist National League of course. Must be a Conservative. I enjoy StLouis, Colorado, Cubs (of course), Atlanta and lately Phoenix.
W| 2.2.12 @ 7:11PM
Al,
When Ghadaffi was killed, the NY Daily News,or Post , had a front page photo of Ghadaffi on the ground surrounded by young men, one of whom had a Yankee baseball cap on. The caption read:
"Yankee fans kill Ghadaffi."
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 2:46PM
May I strongly suggest that people here read Tom Kratman's CALIPHATE? Yes, it is fiction, and there is an assumption that Hillary was President at this time rather than Obama, (it was published in 2008), but it is the most prophetic piece of fiction that I have ever read, and is a perfect fictional accompianment to Mark Steyn's latest books. It is not great Literature, but it is great fiction of ideas and historical extrapolation. Well worth your time. Really, truly.
Al Adab| 2.2.12 @ 3:42PM
O/T:
I'll give it a try as you suggest above. Can I have it with ginger snaps and ginger ale?
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 5:29PM
Al, I'll be happy to have them available when we get together, pal.
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 5:58PM
"Accompaniment." Damn.
Publius| 2.3.12 @ 1:28AM
Where did you folks come from? Your posts are about 100 IQ points above the trolls who usually. dominate the political articles. Restores my faith in humanity.
Robert Bové| 2.2.12 @ 6:30AM
Well stated, Mr. Orlet. The field of literary fiction is a cold, dismal place. If you ever try another novel, consider Alexander McCall Smith's serial novel, 44 Scotland Street, starting with the first volume. It just might reignite your fancy.
KyMouse| 2.2.12 @ 2:43PM
For the past few years, I've been reviewing books for a city newspaper. As a result, lots of publishers have sent me their latest books. I loved receiving good nonfiction, such as "Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways and Sailors' Wives," by maritime scholar David Cordingly. Come aboard, mateys, for some fascinating fun on the high seas!
Very seldom have I found a new novel that I thought had much merit, a fact that has reinforced my fondness for nonfiction. Almost all of the novels I received used obscenities and featured characters who were shacking up. Or were vampires. All of the novels, I recall, were politically correct in every way.
One I did like is "Atlas of Unknowns," by Tania James. Her first novel, it shows an excellent use of language to tell a story, although the ending is a bit abrupt. She has a real way with words.
In general, however, I'll stick with Dickens, Twain and "To Kill a Mockingbird."
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 6:16PM
KyMouse:
you want to read great comic fiction, try PG Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster series. Magnificent. For mysteries, start with Chandler and Hammett, and then go on to Rex Stout. Historical Fiction, no one tops the 20 book Aubrey/Maturin series, which is both full of action, occasionally hysterically funny, and beautifully written. Science Fiction: for jihadism predictions, no one beats Tom Kratman, although he is occasionally crude (as is jihad and sharia). For philosophical musings on the relation between social responsibility and political power, Starship troopers, by Heinlein. For the relationship between education and society, Pournelle. For post-atomic Holocaust fiction, Miller's incredible "A Canticle for Leibowitz" (which also discusses the ethics of euthanasia in great detail)
Ther are some wonderful pieces of fiction out there that will entertain and interest you, without being too "hoity-toity." Except for the Kratman mentioned above, which has scenes of rape and child slavery (Sharia, ya know), all of the above works are G-PG rated.
Jocon307| 2.5.12 @ 3:40PM
"Miller's incredible "A Canticle for Leibowitz"
I've wanted to read this novel of for over 30 years!
Finally I think of it when I'm at the library and what do I find out? ALL the copies are reserved because a book club is reading it, or going to read it!
It's not on the kindle, either.
Someday....someday I'll read A Canticle for Liebowitz. If it lives up to the decade of expectations, well, that will be amazing!
PCC| 2.2.12 @ 6:38AM
Well, if you've ever read even one West Wing memoir, then you'll understand why I read novels: I prefer my fiction straight.
Appleby| 2.2.12 @ 6:56AM
I read Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane mysteries (by Dorothy Sayers) over and over again; this week I re-read "Have His Carcase", which a friend sent to me, with the same delight I felt the first time I read it. I have read all the "Cat Who" stories at least once; they are nice light beach books about people who live in a small (fictitious) town and are the kind of people I can imagine having a life after the books are closed. It's not the kind of town I would want to live in -- I am a city girl -- but the people are normal -- no vampires, magic rings or alternate universes; a middle aged man and his cats who solve mysteries amid friendly people who run small businesses and care about their town and one another. (Oh, there is no sex and no filthy language either, by the way.)
Right now I am reading Louisa May Alcott's "Rose in Bloom", the sequel to "Eight Cousins." It's quaint and dated but it's still nice to read about people who live normal lives and remember what that was like.
I read novels because they take me to times and places where I am not, and give me another more peaceful and uncomplicated world to live in for a little while. I read novels from a time and place when people were nice to each other and life was comfortable and there was not one single Presidential Campaign or Congressional Tantrum to take up peoples' time. In other words, life was childhood and problems could be solved...by other people.
Life is tough. Novels, if you pick the right novels, remind you that life and people can be nice.
David T| 2.2.12 @ 9:19AM
Appleby--You sound like a writer yourself.
CarolynCecile| 2.2.12 @ 11:41AM
I stuff my poor brain with so much political writing now, and at the end of each day I tell myself back off a little you are turning into a crank. (I am trying to catch up for years of neglect and ignorance of the direction our country is heading.) For the past three nights, I have read a Father Brown story and am enjoying them immensely; the book is the entire collection so it should last a while. Just following the comments here today remind me of so many books I have not read. At age 54, I agree that my time is limited or at least not to be wasted and the last few novels I could not "get into" I just put down. I would never have done that previously...had to suffer through until the end. Sort of freeing!
Tim the Enchanter| 2.2.12 @ 4:48PM
Ah, yes- Chesterton! A lifetime is hardly enough time to take in all his stuff.
gearjammer| 2.2.12 @ 6:22PM
Only way to do it.
POST American| 2.2.12 @ 7:02AM
"I used to think publishers were
there to read through things, recognize
talent and things of interest, and get
them before the public. Nothing
could be further from the truth.
Publishers are there to 'select' what
the public will see -----ie to censor
and also to promote the 'age-enda'.
See ALLLLL publishing houses are
connected. ALLLLL are 'on board'."
IF you were wondering WHY, aside
from Frankfuhrt School demoralization ops,
the male novel disappeared about 4 decades
ago ---there's your answer.
We'll have NO potent figure of any kind
presented standing up against ther actuarial
psychopathy ----or opening a metaphysic
on the nature of the unborn etc.
Through 4 decades of broad daylight
RED China economic transfer and
political mutiny against the republic
----where were the voices of righteous
indignation within literature?
"Remember, everything in your culture
--from Rap to Mozart ---has been promoted
and authorized from the top. And I DO
mean everything-----And I DO mean
--the-- top."
And, of course, it's now out that ALLLLL
the 'prophetic visionaries' of science fiction
were nothing more than capstone 'innies'
who'd been given access to the archives
and the 'blueprints for tomorrow'.
It's what they call 'predictive programming'.
Been on the go long before even Tavistock
and Pavlov were experimenting on children.
And finally, when was the last time you
saw ANY writer, 'Right' or 'Left',
of fiction, history, fantasy or science fiction
---taking on the ever ripe issue
of the ABOMINATION of USURY and
its sourcing of EUGENICS down through
the ages?
--------------------------------GET THE PICTURE?
Douglas Fletcher | 2.2.12 @ 8:13AM
Ezra lives.
SeymourGlass| 2.2.12 @ 5:11PM
Douglas: right on. "POST" reminds me of a guy I knew in Grad School who, when the name Ezra Pound came up, knew him as an ECONOMIST and not a poet. Scary...
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 9:07AM
I just KNEW if I waited long enough, I'd see somebody make a reference to the Tavistock Institute. Thanks for renewing my faith in human consistency...
David March| 2.2.12 @ 9:48AM
Pffft...
You want male novels, go to Baen publishing website and buy any military science fiction. Jerry Pournelle, Eric Flint, David Drake, Tom Kratman.
3/4 of them are some of the most conservative writers you will ever read.
DM
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 2:50PM
Hey, Dave---in real life I'm a friend of Tom's. You are so right about him...he is also an exceptional gentleman, and a scholar of miltary history.
Dai Alanye | 2.2.12 @ 10:04AM
Don't get POST American started on the Bohemian Grove.
scott| 2.2.12 @ 7:30AM
Amazing. I found myself after 40 hitting history, biography exclusively, though I always loved them. One thing frustrates me: these are far less likely to be available/affordable at Audible.com than novels.
Was going to read Blood Meridian after hearing H. Bloom say McCarthy was a notable contemporary author. Bloom said it was awful to read because of the violence. I'm starting to have an aversion to that too.
I would hit Moby Dick again simply for Melville's majestic yet humble prose that I listen to in complete awe. Kipling's Kim has a similar magic (not a similar prose) I am clueless to describe.
Yes, I listen, not read, classic novels because I've run into difficult terms exactly twice out of hundreds, one being (surprisingly) Cooper's The Pioneers. Didn't expect that from an early American author.
Douglas Fletcher | 2.2.12 @ 8:15AM
So maybe this is just a phase in Western Civilization and it won't end until the residues of James Joyce's influence of 20th century writing is dead and nearly forgotten. You know, like next week.
Joseph| 2.2.12 @ 8:16AM
Does anyone still read Philip Roth? I know he is till a favorite with the critics but who reads him.
albert constantine jr.| 2.2.12 @ 9:31AM
I still sing a line or two from the song "Mrs. Robinson", though since I crossed the threshold of half a century, I prefer the Sinatra version over Simon & Garfunkel's.
Douglas Fletcher | 2.3.12 @ 1:40AM
Roth didn't write that book.
MikeG| 2.3.12 @ 11:43PM
Who wrote the Graduate?
Paul McGrath| 2.2.12 @ 11:53AM
Roth hasn't written a good book in thirty years.
W | 2.2.12 @ 12:46PM
Goodbye Columbus and American Pastoral were good.
gearjammer| 2.2.12 @ 6:55PM
American Pastoral may truly be a great novel. His telling of Newark before its decline is most thought provoking. For a New York type sophisticate he gives a great history of the glove industry we once had here. He almost reverently goes about the task of describing how these great craftsmen polied their trade. Over the last decade or so, he has written some fine shorter works. Everyman is quite powerful and touching too. Once again, great insight into Newark and by extension many east coast cities in earlier days. His description of the Jewelry
Store owned by the main charactors father is once again an informative and moving story of a small businessman who gave ev erything he had for the two sons he and his wife put ahead of all else. This man allowed a his young customers ready to marry to purchase an engagement ring with just a small down payment and pay backi the store over time, Thus, with just the down payment a man could take the ring and propose, Roth tells us that virtually every one of them honore
d the agreement and payed the balanceThis rings true to me. The few deadbeats the owner shrugged off. Without giving us a sermon about the virtue of the good old days, we see that in some ways we truly were a better in some ways. Indignation is another, and once again we see and learn about the world of a small business man, this time a butcher. This sidestecks into how ordinary men made a living are worth reading and understanding. As I say, this from a man we can accuratley describe as an elitist, a liberal, although one cannot help but discover truths that conservarives will find worthy and of value.
W| 2.2.12 @ 7:35PM
Nice summary. Maybe he is a conservative at heart.
Texasgin| 2.4.12 @ 12:20AM
I agree a very engrossing novel, and unquestionably conservative. Would be higher on my list, but seemed to go 75 pages too long for me and undid the parts I engaged with. Swede Lovov is The Love.
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 9:03AM
I also prefer non-fiction, but I also still read novels.
I just don't read the so-called "good novels." I read the mysteries and thrillers. Many of them are terribly bad, but every now and then I come across one whose author has been doing some original thinking. Please permit me to recommend the crap literature; there's a high quotient of bad writing there, but at least once in a while you come across a little gem.
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 9:10AM
Permit me to recommend Dennis Lehane's novels, for example. For a little modern-day whimsey, Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce mysteries.
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 9:14AM
Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone mysteries. They're at least as profound as Philip Roth's novels, with a LOT better dialogue.
W | 2.2.12 @ 12:47PM
Do you like Parker's Spenser series?
gearjammer| 2.3.12 @ 10:56AM
One chactor ruins Spencer-the utterly insufferable Susan Silverman. I would rather be stranded on a desert island with Rosie Oddonnel than parkers glorious super girl.
MikeG| 2.3.12 @ 11:45PM
Spenser was a good TV show. Liked Hawk.
Stormzeye| 2.2.12 @ 2:37PM
For great dialogue you can't beat Elmo Leonard and for great storytelling there's always Larry McMurtry and James Clavell. Novels can be wonderful "gifts to the imagination".
Al Adab| 2.2.12 @ 3:44PM
Shogun WAS outstanding. His others just not so much. Haven't done McMurtry
W| 2.2.12 @ 5:57PM
McMurty's "Duane is Depressed" is good, a sequel to the Last Picture Show. Talks about philosophy, depression, stoics, women, children.,etc.
Lonesome Dove is good.
Texasgin| 2.4.12 @ 12:13AM
Accessible and entertaining early McMurtry, can be read multible times, Horseman Pass By, Last Picture Show, and lesser known Moving On. Agree on Duane's Depressed but Last Picture Show and Texasville (not as good as the other two) tell you who Duane is.
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 9:22AM
For total crap, but plots that are great fun, the novels of Stephen Hunter. You may learn more about guns than you ever wanted to know, though.
W | 2.2.12 @ 11:02AM
His books about the Vietnam sniper are good.
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 11:44AM
Bob Lee ("Bob the Nailer") Swagger!
Hunter has written a new novel, Soft Target, featuring Bob's son, Ray Cruz, helping to stop a mass-murdering apparent terrorist takeover of the Mall of America. For us conservatives, there are many chuckles in the escapades of the character "Obopo."
W| 2.2.12 @ 5:55PM
Are you the Bill from the Catholic High School we discussed, there are a couple of bills floating around.
Peppermint Tea| 2.2.12 @ 9:07AM
Christopher,
"(Roth accepted)" should be "(Roth excepted)"
Just a heads up.
Peppermint Tea| 2.2.12 @ 9:15AM
Christopher writes: "This sort of novel lost favor with academics among whom it was considered insufficiently literary. And judging from the ideas held by most writers and academics, this was undoubtedly a good thing."
I couldn't agree more!
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 9:20AM
The reason for the disfavor of novels like One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich or Nineteen Eighty-Four, or, for that matter, the novels of John Dos Passos (on the left-wing side) is that such novels require a point of view, and having a point of view (except a very cliched and dogmatic one) is a no-no in certain intellectual and artistic circles.
Paul Kotik| 2.2.12 @ 9:23AM
Read 'em again.
A great novel evolves with the reader. The Satanic Verses I read last week is not The Satanic Verses I read when it was published.
American readers would do well to re-read John Barth's early novels, The End of The Road, The Sot Weed Factor ( especially!), The Floating Opera, and Giles Goat Boy.
albert constantine jr.| 2.2.12 @ 9:35AM
I still find myself a great fan of Elmore Leonard. While I thought "Road Dogs" and "Djibouti" lacked some of his earlier quality, his ear for dialogue and enshrinement of the underestimated character still gives me enjoyment.
W | 2.2.12 @ 10:56AM
I liked Leonard's early stuff like Stick, Swag, High Noon in Detroit, and his westerns Hombre, 3:10 to Yuma.
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 11:49AM
I'm a great fan of 52 Pick-Up, both book and movie.
albert constantine jr| 2.2.12 @ 3:32PM
The Van Heflin film version of 3:10 to Yuma was classic, along with the theme song performed by Frankie Laine.
On my Amazom.com DVD wish list is Roy Scheider's 52 Pick up, for whenever I get time to purchase and watch a new DVD.
W| 2.2.12 @ 6:51PM
Did you like Get Shorty, another Leonard story.
Chris| 2.2.12 @ 9:37AM
Try Michael O'Brien, Father Elijah and other novels.
WillianInWien| 2.2.12 @ 9:40AM
Some nine out of every ten books I read are non-fiction, mainly historical in nature. For the tenth book, I read Henning Mankel...superlative writer, in my "book"!
Dai Alanye | 2.2.12 @ 10:16AM
"Henning Mankell is a Swedish crime writer, children's author, leftist activist..."
Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.
WillianInWien| 2.2.12 @ 11:21AM
And, of course, readers of Mankell are not sophisticated enough to spot any trace of Mankell's "leftist" leanings, or is the reference to younger readers (which I am not).
David T| 2.2.12 @ 9:40AM
I agree novels are for the young. When I was a boy, I was carried away by Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, The Last of the Mohicans, The Time Machine, and the works of Kipling, Burroughs, and Conan Doyle. Nowadays, I prefer philosophy, theology, and church history, with the occasional mystery/political thriller thrown in for guilty pleasure.
Josephine| 2.2.12 @ 3:11PM
I read the classical adventure books, helped along by Classics Illustrated when I was a girl. As an adult read the Russian novels, early American favorite was Hawthorne, read and reread Don Quixote. Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy got me thru the 20th Century. The Catholic poet Roy Campbell has enlivened the last two years, my best discovery! He wrote poetry that rhymed! Recently discovered the philosopher Thomas Molnar's books. With Dr. Molnar and Thomas Aquinas I sail into the sunset of my life.
David March| 2.2.12 @ 9:50AM
I personally tend to read more non-fiction, not just because I like it, but because I get paid to later write about it.
I have a quote of my own, "The thing I like about history is that there always making more of it, and none of it is copyrighted."
ConantheContrarian| 2.2.12 @ 9:54AM
The Long Ships by Frans Bengsston. I wish they would make it into a mini-series.
AC| 2.2.12 @ 10:12AM
Novels can be dangerous. One month I read Philip Roth's Zuckerman Unbound and John le Carré’s Our Game back to back. My attitude and outlook on life went into a tailspin. It took me a year to get over the coincidental hopelessness.
Alice Moore| 2.2.12 @ 10:21AM
Try George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire Series. Don't let the Fantasy Genre classification scare you away. It is in a medieval setting and draws from events and personages of The Hundred Years War and the Wars of the Roses. Even if you have no familiarity with these events you will want to read non-fiction accounts of these events after beginning Mr. Martin's series.
Many would be readers of non-fiction are put off because many accounts devolve into a dry presentation of dates and facts or boring hagiography. David McCollough's John Adams is an excellent read because it nullifies that criticism. Many found it biased against Thomas Jefferson, but, I do not mind opinion as long as it doesn't devolve into a rant.
I also enjoyed the Plantagenet chronicles of Thomas Costain and Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror. These books led me to books like Martin's and Josephine Tey's slim novellette Daughter of Time. Tey, through fictional means sets out to acquit Richard III. The latter novel led me to Paul Murray Kendall's biography; Richard the Third.
This goes to show that fiction and non-fiction need not be mutually exclusive camps.
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 12:07PM
Did you know that History is the Daughter of Time? When I read that novel, I looked it up. If you liked Josephine Tey, you might want to read Brat Farrar; it's a goodie too.
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 12:07PM
Did you know that History is the Daughter of Time? When I read that novel, I looked it up. If you liked Josephine Tey, you might want to read Brat Farrar; it's a goodie too.
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 12:08PM
Did you know that History is the Daughter of Time? When I read that novel, I looked it up. If you liked Josephine Tey, you might want to read Brat Farrar; it's a goodie too.
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 12:08PM
Did you know that History is the Daughter of Time? When I read that novel, I looked it up. If you liked Josephine Tey, you might want to read Brat Farrar; it's a goodie too.
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 6:00PM
And, folks, for those who like history AND literature, you can't do better than Patrick O'Brien and his Aubrey/Maturin novels. Awesome.
W| 2.2.12 @ 6:52PM
Agree, O'Brian is good. I have to keep referring to the picture of the ship to know the terms.
Jocon307| 2.5.12 @ 3:48PM
"Josephine Tey's slim novellette Daughter of Time. "
Wonderful book. I've read others in that series with that detective, but Daughter of Time really sticks with you. It makes some very important points.
And, to bill, it is TRUTH that is the daughter of time.
alphadoc| 2.2.12 @ 10:23AM
It's nice to hear that this experience is common and part of the the development of intellectual maturity, shall we say. I was an English Lit and Biochem major who became a psychiatrist and I attributed my loss of pleasure in reading great novels to hearing thousands of life narratives that were beyond the imaginings of any writer.
Real life is far stranger and wildly more interesting than fiction.
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 5:37PM
Sometimes, I guess, alphadoc. My wife asks me why I like Zombie Novels, and I tell her, "what part of being torn apart by mindless creatures who want to completely consume me for my brains don't you think I can relate to?"
I also enjoy well written history as well. Same for my taste in movies---I like either masterpieces or out of control schlock. Nice comment, alpha. Might I also state that part of the reason that you no longer delve into great fiction is emotional exhaustion. I find that after my work, doing my CME, playing with my kids, reading about politics, and spending time with the wife, that I don't have the emotional/intellectual energy for overly complex fiction anymore.
LaneyB| 2.2.12 @ 10:31AM
I haven't read fiction since my mid twenties which makes that forty years. I found there was nothing to learn and that non-fiction had much more to teach me. Maybe it's an intellect thing.
Ken (Old Texican)| 2.2.12 @ 10:38AM
Ladies and gentlemen,
I have found that well written novels express more "truth" than any place except perhaps Rush Limbaugh.
There is a fiction book in the kindle store at amazon.com titled : "An Act of Self Defense".
I am only half way through it at this time, nevertheless, it is a MUST READ for every American.
Our country is rapidly imploding, and each of you need to understand why.
Someones.....are going to do this story in one form or another. It is inevitable.
Buy some more wheat and beans...and .22 cartridges for barter.
Jobe| 2.2.12 @ 10:54AM
Some ego on Mr. Orlet! Boil all novels in oil because you do not have the curiosity and the patience to get all the way through them. Then, for good measure, trash those of us who can get through them as though we are somehow deficient in our development from adolescence to adulthood and beyond.
Mark| 2.2.12 @ 11:51AM
I don't mind that you don't like novels, but I do mind that you seem to think your aversion to fiction is some sort of virtue.
Paul McGrath| 2.2.12 @ 11:59AM
I agree Mark. There are a slew of excellent contemporary novels out there, including Blood Meridian and Bonfire of the Vanities, which Mr. Orlet could not get through. (Are you kidding me?)
A crass, anti-intellectual article.
Bill| 2.2.12 @ 12:00PM
Yes, don't fall for the criteria set up by the New York intelligentsia; they don't know what they're talking about. Keep in mind that they're still living in New York City - that alone should tell you something about their values.
For example, Cormac McCarthy is a good writer, but not nearly as good as the critics think he is.
W | 2.2.12 @ 12:52PM
McCarthy is tough to read, He slips into Spanish and then back to English in the Borders Trilogy books. I think Elmer Kelton is a much better writer for western books.
Texasgin| 2.3.12 @ 11:48PM
I love both Kelton, may he rest in peace, and McCarthy. But they are checkers and chess. I can love and appreciate The Day the Cowboys Quit and Blood Meridian, but I really think you cannot compare them as exemplars of the wester genre. I know you were not doing that but man, those guys could not see the world more differently.
W| 2.4.12 @ 12:50PM
I am not that familiar with westerns and just read most of Kelton. Liked the historical series about the pioneers from Arkansas, the Texas war of independece, and the one about The Time it Didn't Rain.
skip| 2.5.12 @ 1:47PM
Kelton was listed in the phone book. If you called him up he'd invite you over, chat, sign books. Amazing man.
W| 2.5.12 @ 5:11PM
Wow, his books are great. Did he die? Did you get any autographed books?
skip| 2.6.12 @ 1:02PM
Yes and yes. He passed away at 83 in August '09. Dammit.
shane teton | 2.2.12 @ 12:11PM
I like reading non-fiction and watching fiction.
S. S. Dependo| 2.2.12 @ 12:37PM
Grownups don't read novels is a main thread in Puritan philosophy. But a tradition that spans from "Gulliver's Travels" through "Redburn" through "The Dispossessed" to "A Visit from the Goon Squad" is in public battle with all that ---- and will be till the end, meagerly at times, robustly at others.
Paul McGrath| 2.2.12 @ 12:39PM
Here is a short list of excellent fiction written within the last twenty-five years or so: The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco; Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides; Shantaram, by Gregory David Roberts; The Egyptologist, by Arthur Phillips; The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield; Straight Man or anything else by Richard Russo; Heaven Lake, by John Dalton; Possession by A. S. Byatt; Slammerkin, by Emma Donohue; Joseph, by Julian Rathbone; The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro; Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt; Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier . . .
There are dozens more. I'd be interested to hear what others recommend.
W | 2.2.12 @ 1:02PM
The Daniel Silva books on Mossad agent Gabriel Allon are great. Funny coincidence, in his books the Mossad always uses motorbikes to trail and kill terrorrists. Five Iranian scientists working on the Nuke program (for peaceful purposes, of course) have been killed in the past couple years, one weeks ago, and there was always a motorbike nearby.
Donald Westlake, Nelson DeMille, Philip Caputo, Loren Estelman, early James Webb, Vince Flynn , Andrew Klavan, Robert Ferrigno , Ralph McInerney, Michael Dibdin are good.
W| 2.2.12 @ 7:40PM
P.S
All the novels by William F Buckley are terrific, especially the Blackford Oakes series. The Story of Henri Todd, about the Berlin wall, and Mongoose about the JFK plan to kill Castro are the best.
Forgot about Frederick Forsyth, he is good.
Mark Shepler| 2.2.12 @ 1:11PM
I guess I've always been...different. I started reading history in 6th grade and continue, almost exclusively, still. I was fascinated with WWII and the Civil War but have expanded the scope of my explorations over the decades. In 7th and 8th grades I used to skip PE everyday and hide out in the library reading 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, Guadalcanal Diary and even The Holocaust and whatever else they had on the subject which was, not so unusual back in the day, respectable for a public middle-school. I suppose nowadays if my daughter's middle school has anything on it, it's probably heartbreaking and inspiring tales along the lines of "Hidden Bunkies: Transgender Soldiers Confront Gender, Racial and Socio-Economic Stereotypes at War" or something.
I don't think I've read more than a few dozen novels in my life and eschew fiction not for any great or deep pre-determined intellectual reasons but I just always saw them as superfluous and a sort of weak tea. In History I found fantastic tales of derring do, conquest, overcoming death-defying odds and all manner of human trial and trevail but they were TRUE. They really happened, not made up and they weren't all that long ago as the recent death of President Tyler's grandson vividly reminds us. Or having read of the early low-level bombing raids on Ploesti I later went to work with a man who was a B-24 bombardier on the first and deadliest of them. More than that I could, and can, read them and make my own evaluations and assessments as to motivations and the inner workings of the players without the guiding hand of the novelist who may wish me to come to certain conclusions. It's funny too how those assessments change over time as I've grown older, more experienced and, hopefully, just a bit wiser. Not to mention an even keener appreciation of what those who've come before us accomplished and did with far less in technological and material aids and advantages than we possess today.
There are two exceptions to my lifelong ambivalence towards fiction. The first was also back then and it was Greek mythology. In that library I would also spice up my reading diet with a week or three of Ulysses, Agamemnon, Apollo and the gang and in adulthood I absolutely adore Mark Twain. I've read, and re-read regularly, just about everything of consequence Twain wrote. I think that because just about all his writing, even his fiction, is based on personal experiences is part of the appeal for it's a cousin to history. Thus, like history, they open the mind's eye to life in his times as well as offer timeless truths about human nature. And, of course, one is hard pressed to find scarcely a paragraph of Twains' that does not uncork a chuckle if not a guffaw.
So, I'm with you Christopher and in the middle volume of Shelby Foote's The Civil War for the fourth time. Pickett's charge just crested in blood along the low wall on Cemetery Ridge just south of Gettysburg to mark the High Tide of the Confederacy and we're about to find out tonight what happens that same week out in Vicksburg along the Father of Waters. Can Pemberton and his starving garrison hold on and keep the Confederacy together or will Grant and his besieging blue host prevail and split it asunder? It's as fascinating and spell binding to me today as it was 40 years ago when I first read of it.
And believe it or don't, just as relevant, too.
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 5:52PM
Try reading the military science fiction of Tom Kratman and John Ringo. Both those gentlemen write fantastic SF, and both have"seen the elephant."
Mark Shepler| 2.2.12 @ 8:13PM
Thanks, maybe will. :)
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 6:05PM
"Letters From the Earth" and "A Pen Warmed Up in Hell?" Awesome.
But the best satire I've read is always, "Candide."
TRA| 2.2.12 @ 3:47PM
As of the other day, two of Tyler's grandsons were still alive.
MK316| 2.2.12 @ 3:50PM
Slaughterhouse 5? Really?
Vonnegut was a total lefty bore, and that book in particular did nothing for me. But to each their own.
The last great novel I read was Solomon Gursky Was Here, by Mordecai Richler (1989). It was too epic to be successfully made into a movie, and it worked on so many levels. Of course, it's considerably longer than Slaughterhouse 5.
SeymourGlass| 2.2.12 @ 5:15PM
MK316: agreed. Valerie Perrine did more to sell Vonnegut's books than any literary quality. "Focus on the good times", sure.
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 5:41PM
Seymour: try Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House." Although the boy is, in most respects, a lefty, he wrote the GREATEST piece of Conservative short story writing ever: "Harrison Bergeron."
Ken (Old Texican)| 2.2.12 @ 4:19PM
Man,
what a bunch of hoity toities.
Robert Heinlein launched the space program with fiction.
Al Adab| 2.2.12 @ 4:49PM
True indeed and so many youth in the 50s and early 60s gre up on his work.
We have yet to mention the great prophetic work which is: America Alone Said No.
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 6:01PM
And you don't get much better than "Starship Troopers," which I have read 50 times.
Occam's Tool| 2.2.12 @ 6:04PM
On Kratman: his SF Legion series has the endlessly funny comic bit of having the hereditary head of Amnesty International be an over the top Dominatrix and (true) Sadist, who often kills her "partners."
Al Adab| 2.2.12 @ 6:34PM
O/T:
Rocket Ship Galileo too of course. My personal favorite is actually Time Enough for Love which follows Lazarus Long around for centuries.
Brooklynthinker | 2.2.12 @ 4:28PM
Although I was pressed into reading a novel recently (see review, below), I can say except for the occasional thriller/mystery, I don't. In my experience, I have found that Conservatives prefer non-fiction with the occasional spy/political thriller thrown in and liberals like novels, with all the word implies. (As a recovering liberal I can't tolerate novels, except some classics, any longer). Novel means new, after all-they don't conserve what's valuable, they trash it and offer up directionless newness as a virtue. Today's novels aren't really new, though. They are dull, filled with gruesome, meaningless sex and dull inner-conversations and duller political conversations. They lack triumph, morals, God. They are bleak and depressing. I've read one novel in the past few years and because it was so overtly about pathetic liberals, I found it funny, if a bit sad. (The Emperor's Children). I call it the Anti-Fountainhead. http://brooklynthinker.wordpre.....llo-world/
Kathleen| 2.2.12 @ 4:36PM
Snap out of that bad mood, dearie! I understand, especially the running out of time deal. That and being irritable. What snaps me back to attention is the thought of facing the end and, startled, realizing all the classic novels I did not read. I have a copy of "the Top 100 Fiction Novels" and I need to get busy. Then there's always books on tape so you do the multi-tasking mambo. (Speaking of Moby Dick, check out the film Warrior.....Nick Nolte's character listens to that tome on tape and it becomes a theme in the film)
DWSWesVirginny| 2.2.12 @ 4:38PM
Not sure I understand the point of this article. Doesn't it depend on what novels you read? The author's list reads like a generic list that one got from one's undergrad days; or one that would be read if one wanted to score well on one of those fine ETS entrance exams. It doesn't reflect a desire to explore the universe of novels. Personally I just finished reading Lorna Doone, The Man who was Thursday and All Passion Spent--lovely books! But I think the author should have said that most contemporary novels aren't worth reading. Most modern writing is bad and minimalist and leftist (which is probably saying the same thing!). Most modern literature is like modern art, gimicky stuff and nonsense that has no other purpose than to: 1) scam funding agencies; 2) offend sensibilities and recruit into perversion; 3) register the artist's own flaccid "philosophy" on some unsuspecting medium. Yes, in the last reason I am sympathizing with the innocent inanimate materials that are cruely cast into modern art forms! I'd like to form a society called People for the Ethical Treatment of Artistic Materials (PETAM). We could then crash into museums and "liberate" modern artworks, returning them to the free unmolded forms! Take spray paint and lay swaths across abstract expressionist ourves (then again, who'd notice!) and trample into atoms the works of the recently demised Mike Kelly! Join us!
PODBAYDOORS| 2.2.12 @ 5:51PM
With reality as fast paced, mysterious and full of intrigue as the political class has made it, who could possibly find a novel more entertaining? Anyway, the BIG ANSWERS are always before your face and free for the taking.
Richard Baker| 2.2.12 @ 6:05PM
Brian Mc:
Thanks for the info. What I'd really love to do is read Caesar in LATIN. I tried to read all of Asimov but discovered that his sheer output was beyond me. Even Arthur C. Clarke was astounded/amazed at the volume of his writings.
Al Adab| 2.2.12 @ 6:36PM
Galia est omnis diviso in partes trece.
Occam's Tool| 2.5.12 @ 5:46AM
Richard: Asimov would sit down and write for about 8 hours a day. You are right---he does fill up a book case with his work.
POST American| 2.2.12 @ 10:29PM
---------------------FINAL WORD----------------------
"Understand, 'novels' were brought out and
promoted big time around the time of the
French Revolution. They were put out there
by the capstone to introduce 'new' ways of
thinking ---new 'channels' for social engineering.
Despite their talent, MOST authors, since the
begining, have been 'USED' -----are part of
the 'program'."
AGAIN FOLKS ---BACK! -----BACK to
-------------REPENTANCE---------------
----BACK to prayerfully searching
the scriptures ---Geneva or King James Version.
John Bunyan, John Gill, Calvin and Augustine
will further open your eyes.
AS the Globalist TREASON OP finishes off
-------as FINAL EUGENICS unfold
-------------------------------------------BACK!!!
"-Religion is the KEY to history
--and ONLY the Calvinists would FIGHT."
-Lord Acton
---------------------------AMEN---------------------------
Louis Hatchett| 2.2.12 @ 10:32PM
About 25 years ago I gave up on American fiction entirely and spent the next 25 years reading non-fiction. Then about ten years ago, I began exploring American dime novel fiction from roughly 1885 until its demise in 1915 and American pulp fiction that flourished from about 1930 to about 1950 or thereabouts. I haven't looked back. What great fun! The internet has all sorts of outlets to buy these texts; Dime Novel Castle and Adventure House, just to name two.
POST American| 2.2.12 @ 10:44PM
"----Do you understand, your country's
been hijacked ---IS being taken down and
handed over into receivership to the
--MOST-- awesomely genocidal regime
mankind's EVER seen?
DO you understand, your food, meds,
water, air, culture and enviornment
have been weaponized? ---DO you get
that MOST of you and your posterity
are technically, and soon to be actually,
------------------EXTINCT?"
'Entertaining yourselves ---is the LAST
THING you should be into-----!"
------------------------------------------------------AMEN
work at home | 2.3.12 @ 5:40AM
I found this article very insightful. Its unfortunate that some felt it was unfortunate that the article couldn't have been more shallow, and of a different topic altogether.
trekie70| 2.3.12 @ 10:27AM
I am a voracious reader of all kinds of books but mostly fiction. I read everything from George RR Martin to Jeffrey Deaver, from Mary Higgins Clark to Stephen King to John Sanford. I disagree with the hypothesis that the number of fiction readers will eventually fall somewhere close to those reading Latin poetry. I am part of a number of online networks for readers and the members are numerous and spread across the country and the world. I don’t why Roth made this prediction and I admit I am not familiar with his work but as long as people vacation by car/plane, commute by train or have lulls during the work or school day, there will be fiction readers.
POST American| 2.3.12 @ 9:23PM
Would that Roth did something truly
'daring' and, in a well researched volume,
laid bare the horrific legacy of 'Free Traders'
----cultural destruction and GENOCIDE.
He could start with Old China -----and
some of our fave 'pyre--rat' opium dealing
Yalie 'ILL-loom--in---ati' families.
Don't hold your breath
Fred Z| 2.3.12 @ 9:55PM
Older people actually realize, instead of just mouthing it, that 90% (at least) of everything is crap.
Here's my question for Mr. Orlet: How many books of history have you sampled and rejected with a sotto voce 'This is crap.'
In my case it was pretty much as many as the novels.
Occam's Tool| 2.5.12 @ 5:50AM
95% of everything is crap---Sturgeon's Law. And really, it applied, I thought, to a lot of his work.
I like: "If all men were brothers, would you let one marry your sister?", "Microcosmic god," "Killdozer,""Thunder and Roses." These I like, but much of his work is self indulgent crap.
Texasgin| 2.3.12 @ 11:38PM
Must say I pushed past the cold jackrabbit stew with the hermit on my fourth try of Blood Meridian. Well, well worth it. And if you want to try a relatively modern novel that will blow you away, Disgrace by Coetzee did for me. In general I think the migration from fiction to nonfiction is a phenomenon akin to the middle aged generally listening only to talk radio, quitting blood sport, and moderating alcohol consumption (the numerous exceptions proving the rule).
POST American| 2.4.12 @ 9:23PM
"----Understand, less than 6% of even
IVY league Phds ever get access to the
REAL archives, which are PRIVATE."
---Paid all that money, spent all that time
---and there you stand, clutching a worthless
IVY league Phd.
-------------------------------TOOOO FUNNY
Richard Baker| 2.5.12 @ 3:37PM
If you can find it I recommend reading the science fiction classic "Canticle for Liebowitz" by Walter Miller which for my mind is one of the best stories I've ever read.
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Audio Transcription | 6.20.12 @ 9:32AM
Fictions novels or stories are also based on some strong real base. Reality cannot be neglected there also.