Monday, June 29, 2015

Literary? A Big Nope.

So I was looking for something good to read on my shelves and came across a book called, The Prop, by Pete Hautman.  Looks interesting.  A mystery set in an Indian casino.

Then I read that it is a "National Book Award Winner."  I immediately start to put it back, and then hesitate.

Wait, has it come to this?  That a recommendation of "literary" quality is a turnoff?

Yep.

It has come to this.

I have to say I've been annoyed and unsatisfied with most of the so-called "literary" novels I've read lately, not to mention most of them are terrible downers, most of them about the same damn subjects. 

Oh, the occasional good books become "literary."  Authors like Neal Stephenson and Neal Gaiman come to mind.  But it's as if the entertaining aspect is an accidental byproduct.  That is, they aren't deemed "literary" because of their entertainment value but because of other more unspecified reasons that shall forever remain a mystery to me.

Anyway, it turns out that the author not the book is a "National Book Award Winner" for a young adult novel he wrote, and that The Prop is an immensely fun read.

Phew... dodged another one.


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