For the record, I haven't read either of the two books discussed here ("Switzy" by Emma Cline and "Ply" by Hernan Diaz). And the one book of literary fiction i did read this month (Nelio Biedermann's much-hyped "Lazar") did not fall into these traps and is wonderful.
This isn't a particularly new problem. There have been variants of this complaint going back at least as far as Roland Barthes saying literature was dead. Now Barthes is dead, and literature is still around. But one constant problem is often that when writers get a certain amount of established credit, that indeed, they are not challenged as much, by editors, by critics, etc. At least until readers start noticing, old what's his face isn't up to it any more.
It just means you might have to hunt around a little more to find something interesting. But then, the last new novel I read was The Book of Love, by Kelly Link. It was excellent, and kinda weird.
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[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 12.0 ms ] threadIt just means you might have to hunt around a little more to find something interesting. But then, the last new novel I read was The Book of Love, by Kelly Link. It was excellent, and kinda weird.