flâneur

The One Book Every Editor Wants to Publish - by Sean deLone

dearheadofmine.substack.com · 2,623 words · saved by 1 readers

Before we get to “the one book” we’re going to define a term and do a little Q&A. Prior to the 21st century there were only two classifications of books (necessary hyperbole). Books were either “literary” or they were “commercial.” Times were simpler, as they say. Even if a novel was exceptional for its genre, something that readers and critics admired, this did not automatically qualify a book as literary. I read The Silence of the Lambs for the first time, spoiler, it’s a great book. Silence, despite being very good, is still a genre book: a police procedural, a thriller, even a horror novel of sorts. That means, in the old days, it was considered a commercial book, not a literary one. The Godfather, commercial. Bridget Jones’s Diary, commercial. Toni Morrison, literature. Philip Roth, literature. Marilynne Robinson, literature. This clear either/or lasted the entire 20th century and was a heyday for literary snobs: you’re in the club or you’re out. This thinking of course still pers

Before we get to “the one book” we’re going to define a term and do a little Q&A. Prior to the 21st century there were only two classifications of books (necessary hyperbole). Books were either “literary” or they were “commercial.” Times were simpler, as they say. Even if a novel was exceptional for its genre, something that readers and critics admired, this did not automatically qualify a book as literary. I read The Silence of the Lambs for the first time, spoiler, it’s a great book. Silence, despite being very good, is still a genre book: a police procedural, a thriller, even a horror…

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