For me, genre fiction is the best way to do that. I don't mean to imply that genre fiction is nothing but feel-good fluff - it definitely isn't. But I know that I can count on a journey and an ending that's satisfying and won't leave me weeping - unless it's the good kind of crying.
I have a dear friend who almost exclusively reads literary fiction. She'd been bugging me to read a certain book. I thought it looked like a terrible idea, but she'd loved it and wanted to share it with me. So I made her a deal. I told her if she’d read the genre fiction of my choosing, I’d read the literary fiction of hers. Thus, the arrangement made in hell was born.
This is what happened:
Her: OMG. This is actually really good. Why didn’t I know this?
Me: ‘Cause you’re a fiction snob.
Her: Oh right. I forgot. So, is book two out yet?
Me: Yeah and book three. Four will be out later this year.
Her: Cool. I feel a trip to Barnes and Noble coming on.
Me: I thought you might.
Her: You don’t have to gloat.
Me: I’m not gloating...much.
Her: So, how are you liking your book?
Me: Meh...but, I’m not very far into it yet. It’s pretty cumbersome prose. Also, it’s depressing as hell.
Her: I know, right?
Me: Bitch.
I bet you’re wondering if I finished that book, aren’t you? Oh, I finished it, all right. Every morose, depressing tear-jerking page. This is how it went for me.
Like a moron, I came to the end of this miserable book in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. So I’m reading, trying to be all discreet while wiping away my tears and blowing my nose, and I hear this little girl say:
“Daddy? Why dat yady cryin’?”
He glances up from his magazine, looks at me like I’m a freak and says, “I don’t know honey.”
So the little girl stares at me for a while, walks over and says, “Hey yady, why you cryin’?”
So I shut my book and say, “I’m reading this book, and it’s very sad.”
She wrinkled up her nose and said, “Then why you reading it?”
Good question, kid. I said, “Well, my friend read it and really liked and told me I needed to read it, too.”
She stared at me for a minute, put her hands on her hips and said, “Your friend is mean!”
So there you have it – out of the mouths of babes. Literary fiction is mean!
I know there's great literary fiction out there. I'm sure it's probably not all gut-wrenchingly sad. And I'm equally sure that, Margaret Atwood aside, I'll be reaching for genre fiction 99% of the time.
Kirsti, Tess and Lynn are all sharing their takes on literary vs. genre fiction. Click on their names to see what they have to say. :)
