Just read an interesting article in The Wall Street Journal: “Good Novels Don’t Have to Be Hard.”
Lev Grossman says the key to the 21st-century novel is “the ongoing exoneration and rehabilitation of plot.” He spends a good bit of time slamming the early 20th-century Modernists for being too difficult to understand.
Does it really have to be an either/or choice between the challenging Modernist novel and the easy-to-read plot-driven novel?
I think there’s a place for both. That’s why both Faulkner and Grisham have a place on my shelves.
Take a look at the article and let me know what you think.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574377163804387216.html