Literature is where ideas are investigated, lived out, explored in all their messy complexity….Literature is how we make ourselves intelligible to ourselves. And contemporary fiction matters because it is how we work out who we are now, today.

Robert Eaglestone begins this short book by roughly sketching out the characteristics of contemporary literature, and how it differs from the earlier literary periods of Modernism (1920s+) Post-Modern (60s+). Discussion then turns to genre: a bit of history on it, what it offers, its literary value, and some discussion of a few specific genres.The author also discusses how contemporary fiction deals with the present, the past and the future. What is it communicating to us?

In the conclusion, there is some discussion of literary criticism itself, which the author likens to discovering how novels think, the patterns they make, their value and role in the world…
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Despite the fact that this book is now six or seven years old, doesn’t make it out-of-date, as I may have feared. I was surprised at how many of the novels he used to illustrate his points were novels that I had read, although one does not have to have read the books to enjoy his discussion of them. I very much enjoyed the chapter on genre, it certainly broadened my ideas of the concept. But, I also very much enjoyed the discussion of how our contemporary fiction handles the past, present or future…. so many interesting tidbits to mull…

The author clearly loves his work and it shows in this little book. It’s both scholarly and accessible. A love of good quality fiction and a curious and attentive mind is all one needs to enjoy this small book of 105 small pages. ( )

This Very Short Introduction to Contemporary Fiction is a very interesting little book!

From the first words of the introduction to the last chapter about literary criticism, I found myself constantly nodding in agreement, with only an occasional demurral in between because I wasn’t keen on some of the books he lauds:

Literature thinks.

Literature is where ideas are investigated, lived out, explored in all their messy complexity. Sometimes these ideas look quite simple: What if you fell in love with someone who seems quite unsuitable for you? What happens if there is a traitor in your spy network? Sometimes they might appear more complicated: How can I reconstruct my memory of an event I can’t recall? Perhaps, too, ‘think’ is not the right word: ‘think’ is too limiting a description of the range of what a novel can do with ideas. In any event, the way literature thinks is bound up with what it’s like to be us, to be human. Literature is how we make ourselves intelligible to ourselves. And contemporary fiction matters because it is how we work out who we are now, today.

I believe the novel is the best way of doing this. Of all the arts, the novel is the most thoughtful, the closest, the most personal. Unlike the visual arts or music or computer games, the novel uses only language. Nearly every one of us is an expert user of language and, more importantly, nearly everyone is an expert creator in language. Every day we use words to express ourselves and to tell stories, to make patterns out of our reality. We all share and thrive in language: we are much more intimate with the novel’s medium than we are with theatre or film. Unlike much poetry or painting, fiction has narrative, sometimes in complex ways. We share this with the novel too, because each of us, in the stories we tell every day, is a skilled author and weaver of narrative. We can all judge a novel by the high and demanding standards of our own use of words and stories and by our own patterns of reality. Because it takes longer to read a novel than it does to see a film or listen to a piece of music and because novels demand more time and energy, they are more immersive. This is the origin of phrases like ‘losing yourself in a book’ or ‘the book speaks to me’ as if a novel was more than just ink on a page or words on a screen. We live in novels more than any other art form, and after reading them, they stay with us (an after-reading). The novel is still the art form most deeply and directly engaged with us. (p.1-2)

Eaglestone pays homage to the variety of forms that contemporary fiction can take, and he says that because a novel might go anywhere or do anything it’s not possible for anybody to be an expert in the usual sense of the word. He also admits that anything he says is going to be out-of-date within a decade.

His chapter headings show the directions he takes:

Chapter 1: Saying everything
Chapter 2: Form, or, what’s contemporary about contemporary fiction?
Chapter 3: Genre
Chapter 4: The past
Chapter 5: The present
Chapter 6: The future
Chapter 7: Conclusion: ‘Hey everyone, look at that beautiful thing’ / ‘Yes, but…’

I enjoyed the chapter on form, where Eaglestone acknowledges that contemporary authors make more demands on readers than authors of previous eras.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/08/03/contemporary-fiction-a-very-short-introducti... ( )