April GenreCAT: LITERARY FICTION

So this is an odd installment in the GenreCAT, given that works of literary fiction are non-genre novels, although it can include genre fiction. It's complicated!

Generally speaking, genre fiction places its emphasis on plot and on keeping within certain parameters that define the genre, so romance novels require the HEA (happily ever after) and a novel would not be considered a cozy mystery if there were an explicit sex scene, even if the novel took place in a tea shop and featured a group of eccentric characters.

But what makes a novel "literary" is more amorphous. It usually means a novel that is more concerned with the use of language and writing style, and/or that focuses more on character studies than plot. It also refers to novels that have stood the test of time, although novels being published this week are considered literary and some "classics" are not (Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, for example.) And there are genre novels that are also literary novels, like Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem.

So how to decide whether a novel is literary or not? Do we use a variation of Justice Potter Stewart's maxim - you know it when you see it? One way to pigeon-hole a book is whether it has been on a list relating to a literary prize, like the Booker or the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Another is to go with the publisher's marketing of a book or with how a book is reviewed. Another is to look at how the book is blurbed -- is the emphasis on the exciting plot or is it about a single character's development?

Anyway, for the purposes of this month's CAT, trust your own ability to "know it when you see it," and good luck! Please share what you're planning to read, are reading or have read for this challenge and don't forget to add your book to the wiki!

https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/GenreCAT_2021

I've been planning to read Pachinko by Min Jin Lee for this CAT. It was a National Book Award finalist.

My plan is to read Warlight by Michael Ondaatje.

One of the books that is near the top of my TBR but I just can't get to it is The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. I hope to read it in April. It won the Pulitzer in 2020.

I am thinking of reading My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell.

>2 clue: Pachinko is a good example of a book that is both genre (historical fiction) and literary fiction. Also, it's excellent and I hope you love it.

>1 RidgewayGirl: I guess I'll see what everyone else is reading, because I'm confused about what book on my shelves would match this challenge.

I will be reading The Four winds by Kristin Hannah.

I must have something lurking on the shelves...

>2 clue: I liked Pachinko. I have many from which to choose: The Nickel Boys, The Underground Railroad, The Orphan Master's Son to name a few.

I can also suggest: All the Light We Cannot See, The Goldfinch, The Color Purple, and Tales of the South Pacific.

This is a great theme, btw! You explained literary fiction very well.

>7 fuzzi: Fuzzi, it's not easy to define what literary fiction is. I would say to just trust your own instinct. No one is going to show up and tell you that you are wrong.

>10 Tess_W: Thanks, Tess. It's such a squishy concept.

I might go back and re-read Good-bye Mr. Chips or maybe a Bertie and Jeeves.

I have quite a few options that are tagged this way, so hopefully they fit:

The Road / Cormac McCarthy
In One Person / John Irving
Runaway / Alice Munro
I Do Not Come to you By Chance / Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

There are some very good reads mentioned here. If The Four Winds becomes available, I will read that. Of the books that I already own, I'm eyeing The Most Fun We Ever Had, Luster, The Girl With the Louding Voice, and Shuggie Bain.

My most likely choices for this one areIf On A Winter's Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino and My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk.

Also my book club is reading The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John Le Carré in April. I've never read any Le Carré but my impression is that his work is considered more literary than most spy stories. Can anyone confirm this or have I got it wrong?

Great! The Women's Prize longlist just came out so I will probably choose from there.

As others have mentioned, it's hard to distinguish between literary and genre fiction sometimes. Personally, I'm finding copyright pages to be a useful tool! For example, in looking at the copyright page of Amor Towles's A Gentleman in Moscow, I see the following Library of Congress subjects: Fiction/Historical, Fiction/Literary, and Fiction/Political. If the Library of Congress considers it to be literary fiction, that's good enough for me! :)

Being maybe slightly facetious, but looking through my shelves and at my local public library website, it seems like contemporary literary fiction is disproportionately likely to be subtitled A Novel.

>15 Robertgreaves: I had recently read this from the New York Times

Mr. le Carré refused to allow his books to be entered for literary prizes. But many critics considered his books literature of the first rank.

“I think he has easily burst out of being a genre writer and will be remembered as perhaps the most significant novelist of the second half of the 20th century in Britain,” the author Ian McEwan told the British newspaper The Telegraph in 2013, adding that he has “charted our decline and recorded the nature of our bureaucracies like no one else has.”

I've decided on Autumn by Ali Smith which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2017.

>18 susanna.fraser: - I'd hate to think you right, but it is true that many books now carry that appendage (including the one I've chosen).

I have a few unread Giller Prize nominees in my stacks, so I've earmarked Undermajordomo Minor, by Patrick deWitt, for this challenge.

>19 clue: Good enough

I'm planning on reading both Come on Up by Jordi Nopca and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. I'm not familiar with Nopca's work, but the book has come out from Bellevue Literary Press, which focuses exclusively on literary fiction, and it came to me through LT's early reviewer program, so I want to get to it sooner than later. Turn of the Screw will be a fast re-read for me, but I've been wanting to re-read it since watching the mini-series on Netflix.

I will be reading Circe by Madeline Miller for my bookclub which should fit this category.

>23 whitewavedarling: Come on Up is on my stack to read soon.

For this month, I'm reading Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel.

I hope to read The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald if I can get it from my library in time. Probably I will also read something by Balzac as I am trying to work my way (slowly) through his Human Comedy...

>15 Robertgreaves: Both the Calvino & Pamuk books you mentioned were wonderful! And though I am not a big fan of Le Carre, I would consider his books literary fiction.

I finished Exit West by Mohsin Hamid for this CAT.

I Do Not Come to You By Chance / Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani.
3 stars

In Nigeria, Kingsley’s father is very sick, and to pay for his hospital bills, Kingsley must go to his rich uncle for money to pay for his father’s care. Uncle Boniface (more well-known in the community as Cash Daddy) shamefully (to the rest of the family) gets his money from 419 email scams. Kingsley has an engineering degree but is unable to find a job. This eventually forces him to work for his uncle.

This was ok. I’m not sure there were many characters I particularly liked, and it was a bit slow in the first half. The end also confused me a bit, as I’m not exactly sure what happened there. I had briefly considered upping my rating a bit until the end.

I read The Word for Woman is Wilderness by Abi Andrews, about a young woman's journey of self-discovery by mimicking the "mountain man" trope. It was interesting, though I found the protagonist almost unbearably pretentious and self-involved much of the time.

A Prayer for the Dying / Stewart O'Nan
2.5 stars

In a small town in Wisconsin in the 19th century, “you” (Jacob) is a preacher, an undertaker (and apparently, a sheriff, which I missed). An illness has come into town and people are dying. Not only that, there is a wildfire nearby.

It’s a short book. Right off the bat, I wasn’t liking the second-person narrative, so I didn’t like the writing style. It wasn’t easy to follow, and for a while there were a couple of people who I wasn’t sure whether or not they were dead or still alive, after all. I appear to be in a minority, but I’m not a fan of this one.

I finished Melmoth by Sarah Perry.

This is the story of Helen, an English woman living in Prague who is introduced to the legend of Melmoth. Melmoth was one of the women who witnessed Christ's resurrections, but when asked she denied it. Because of this betrayal she is cursed to walk the Earth forever, alone, witnessing all of the atrocities that humans commit. Helen has a secret. She has done something terrible and she begins to believe that Melmoth is following her.

This book was very slow to get going for me. I wasn't sure where the author was going and I found my mind wandering when I was listening to it. However, once Helen begins to read the story of others that have been claimed by Melmoth, it became more interesting. The writing is beautiful and evocative. I liked how it ended and the journey that Helen goes through when forced to literally face her demons. Overall, if you like literary novels with a bit of the supernatural, this one may be a good fit for you.

I have finished Mirjam by Luise Rinser who was well-known in Germany in the late 20th century. The story of Mary Magdalene told by herself.

COMPLETED If On A Winter's Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino

For this challenge I read Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel. It's a reread so now I can finally read The Mirror and the Light.

I have read The Accidental Tourist which works for this CAT (though I haven't written it up on my thread yet). Having seen the movie, I put this book off for a long time but it was worth reading the original.

May thread, Short Stories and/or Essays is up at https://www.librarything.com/topic/331446#n7481226

I read Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, a finalist for the National Book wrdd.

I read Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen for this one

I am reading The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood. It is tagged Literary Fiction.

Mexican Gothic / Silvia Moreno-Garcia
3.25 stars

Noemi has gone to see her recently-married cousin, Catalina, who married suddenly and is now living in a remote large house with her new husband’s family. Noemi’s father is worried about some letters Catalina has written, as it sounds like she is very ill, so he wanted Noemi to go see how Catalina is doing and see if she can help. Catalina’s husband, Virgil, and his entire family is very odd, to say the least… and it seems quite apparent that they don’t want Noemi there.

The book is slow moving. I listened to the audio, which was fine, but not a whole lot happened until about the last quarter of the book. It did pick up, but not enough for me to raise my rating very much (the extra .25 is for when it finally picked up). I’ve seen this compared to “Rebecca” as a Mexican Rebecca, and Rebecca also started very slow, but there was something about the atmosphere in Rebecca and the story that had me like it better, overall. The atmosphere was done well in this one, too, but one thing I didn’t like were the odd, kind of psychedelic, dreams Noemi was having. Those were just...weird. That did put me off some. Overall, 3 stars for me is ok, and I added the little extra for the pick up at the end.

I read The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt. This book qualifies for literary, historical, fairy tales, WWI, social and political commentary, sex. You name it, its got it.

>39 lowelibrary: That's my favorite Atwood! I hope you like it.

I read Passing by Nella Larson and Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge.

I ended up reading Gone Before Christmas by Charles Finch.

I feel like I'm cheating. The BorrowBox catalogue can be searched by genre and that includes one called Literary Fiction. So I picked D A Tale of Two Worlds. Not sure I'd class it as literary fiction myself, even with the subtitle, but that was what it was catalogued as.

I have completed my read of My Dark Vanessa. This was a difficult read due to subject matter, but the author does a materful job with the material.

I just completed The Lost Traveller, a Virago by Antonia White. Coming of age story of the only daughter of recently converted Catholic parents. Mostly it is a coming of age story but after finishing it I read an intro and the fiction was informed by the author's life.

I have finished Old Filth and liked it very much.

edited for touchstone

I read Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi, a finalist of CBC’s Canada Reads. Not a book I would usually be drawn to on the shelf (sisters estranged due to childhood trauma), but the writing blew me away! So happy I read it.

I read Clock Dance by Anne Tyler, good but not as good as Redhead By the Side of the Road that I read recently.

>49 HannahJo: I have Butter Honey Pig Bread on my wishlist and so glad to read your comments.

COMPLETED The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by John Le Carré, at the literary end of spy stories.

>51 Robertgreaves: I love that one.

I finished The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. I thought this was going to be a bit of a drag, but it was actually very good once it got going.

>52 Crazymamie:. I read that one this year and I really found it to be very good, too.

I've finished What's Mine and Yours by Naima Coster as my literary fiction book this month.

I read (not for the first time) Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

I've finished reading Circe by Madeline Miller.

I finished Warlight by Michael Ondaatje. It's my favourite novel of the year so far!