I was talking with a friend about the unfortunate tendency of readers, critics, and publishers to shoehorn every work of fiction into a specific genre, be it romance or science fiction or mystery or historical fiction–as can be confirmed by a stroll through your local bookstore, where the aisles are labeled by the genre they contain, including that one for the literary snobs labeled “Literature.”
Ah, Literature. There has arisen the belief that Literature occupies a special elite realm beyond the reach of the genres. But the irony here is that many works of fiction that have been knighted as Literature are actually classic examples of genre fiction. Murder mysteries? How about William Faulkner’s Absalom Absalom? Romance? How about Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice? And so on and so on. Name a genre and you will find more than one lodged along that Literature aisle.
Which reminded me of an article I wrote a few years back for CrimeReads, a wonderful online website that describes itself as “a culture website for people who believe suspense is the essence of storytelling, questions are as important as answers, and nothing beats the thrill of a good book.”
My piece is titled “Legal Thrillers for Literary Snobs.” I had fun writing it, and I hope you will enjoy reading it. Here is the link. Enjoy!