LITERARY FICTION OR GENRE?

There is often discussion about the differences between literary or genre fiction. Linked to this is debate whether fiction should be character or plot driven. Some people argue that literary fiction tends to be character driven, with the novel exploring the inner workings of the personality and relationships. Plot driven fiction, however, is presumed to be about story - wham-bang, travelling in fast cars with fast lovers and deadly peril.

I think this is an over-simplification.

Exhibit 1 - Mr James Bond.

The Bond books are classic genre fiction, cramming all the motifs of the action thriller. Yet, I suspect that while the greatest fans could describe the plots, most casual readers would struggle to give more than a hazy outline.

However, most people could readily come up with a fairly accurate character sketch of Bond (it helps that he’s not the most complex of characters, especially in the films.) And not just Bond himself. Goldfinger, Oddjob, Miss Moneypenny, M, Fanny Galore and Blofeld linger in the memory.

Exhibit 2 - Stephen Wraysford in ‘Birdsong’ by Sebastian Faulks.

‘Birdsong’ is one of the most powerful and complex novels imaginable. Most of the book is set on the Western Front of the First World War. The novel uses a variety of narrative perspectives. The themes include the cruelty of war, the class system, the loss of friends and lovers, trauma, the life-long effects of the war upon its participants, the refusal of many survivors to talk about it and later attempts to recover history. Plenty to go on there.

Wraysford is a fine creation, thoughtful, humane and stoic. Yet he does not dominate the stage. The potent force in this literary novel is not character but action, the dreadful things participants experienced. Wraysford’s lover, Isabelle Azaire who is a seminal character at the start of the novel, makes only a fleeting return at the end.

I’m sure that you can come up with many examples where the simplistic distinction between literary and genre fiction is, at best, a fiction.

As an English Literature student at university, I studied works such as Tom Jones, Little Dorrit, The Mill on the Floss, Adam Bede, Heart of Darkness, The Wings of the Dove, Room with a View, Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, Slaughterhouse-Five and Giles Goat Boy. I enjoyed very few and remember little about them now.

Yet, when I was not in class, I devoured the likes of The War of the Worlds, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Cold Comfort Farm, Sword at Sunset, I Robot, Catch 22 and Changing Places. None of which were on the curriculum.

I’ve just found a page to refresh my mind about some of the books I read at university and came across this Wikipedia Page on Twentieth Century Fiction. Here are entries for the first five years of the century, and it helpfully differentiates between Genre Fiction and what I presume Wikipedia considers literary fiction.

1901

    The Inheritors by Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford

    Kim by Rudyard Kipling

Genre fiction

        The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells

1902

    Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

    The Wings of the Dove by Henry James

Genre fiction

    The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

    Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

1903

    The Ambassadors by Henry James

    Genre fiction

    The Call of the Wild by Jack London

    The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers

1904

    The Golden Bowl by Henry James

    Nostromo by Joseph Conrad

    The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G. K. Chesterton

Genre fiction

    The Food of the Gods by H. G. Wells

    The Sea-Wolf by Jack London

Guess which ones I would have enjoyed when at university. And to be frank the ones I would most enjoy now.

I think it’s sad that people elevate literary fiction over genre. I’m pretty sure which will last the longest over time.

You might want to make your own list of books which have had a great impact on you. I found it very illuminating.