The Seven Qualities I Look for in a Novel
Published December 20, 2004
The news is uninspiring this morning, so I have decided to post something I wrote this summer. I was prompted to write it when my book group foisted The Da Vinci Code on me. Our August selection, Dan Brown's mega-mega blockbuster was meant to be "an easy summer read". That it certainly was. Far too easy for my taste. Cardboard characters, leaden prose and a ridiculous plot made it painful to read. It would have been easier for me to get through all seven volumes of A La Recherche du Temps Perdu--in French. Not really, but that's how it often felt as I slogged through the absurd narrative. My favorite character was the masochistic-albino-Catholic zealot-hired killer: very convincing.
I can understand The Code's appeal. It's replete with action, broken up into bite-sized, easily digestible chapters; and the smattering of history and art make readers feel like they're learning something without too much effort. Then there's the whole issue of nefarious conspiricies and, as one character in the novel explains, "everyone loves a good conspiracy". Well, not me. Not when most of the conspiracies making the rounds these days seem to involve the Mossad and/or shadowy Jewish elders. To my mind, we need fewer conspiracy theories and more doses of chastening reality.
Anyway, here's what The Da Vinci Code inspired me to write:
People read for a variety of reasons. Some people read to be entertained, to be pulled along by a fast-paced story, and for the sheer pleasure of getting lost for a time in a rollicking adventure. Essentially, they are looking for in a book what they look for in a movie--thrills, chills, mystery, mayhem, action and suspense. Often this adds up to the kind of formula fiction you find on bestsellers lists.
I have nothing against books like that, and I used to read a lot of them myself. But as I've grown older, I find I want books with other qualities. Here's what I look for in a novel:
1. Compelling prose: I want to be captivated by language, by the author's "way with words". The style needn't be "fancy" or elaborate (in fact, often the simplest language can be the most compelling), but I'm looking for an author who is intelligent, who knows how to use language, and who does so in a distinctive way. And if the author can throw in some with wit and humour, all the better.
- The Seven Qualities I Look for in a Novel
- Published: December 20, 2004
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- Section: Books
- Writer: scaramouche
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I hear what you're saying. Believe me, I do. However, might you agree that it's possible to find authors who combine your seven well thought out qualities with, in your words, "thrills, chills, mystery, mayhem, action and suspense"?
Because that's what I look for. When I wrap it all up I think of this grand combination as a good story told by a good story teller.
Point of fact: I haven't read The DaVinci Code, though I'm often tempted just so I don't feel so left out during TDC conversations.
In any case, I'm curious to learn what authors/books meet the standards of your seven qualities.
Eric Berlin
Dumpster Bust: Miracles from Mind Trash
http://dumpsterbust.blogspot.com
Great list! I can't think of a single characteristic I'd add for fiction, except perhaps consistency. It's annoying enough to buy a book and find it totally disappointing. It's twice as irritating to buy one by an author you can usually trust to meet 6 out of 7 of your criteria, and still be left flat.
Matt Shafer--I don't really see how calling myself "a cranky contrarian" is "patting myself on the back". Not saying I'm better here--only acknowledging that I like to march to my own tempo.
Eric Berlin--Hmm. There aren't a lot of books that have all seven qualities. But it's not really a "holy grail" kind of search. Usually, I'm content to settle for two or three; it's rare indeed to find a novel that satisfies all seven. Personally, thrills and chills aren't that high up on my list, but if I could find an intelligent, witty, hefty thriller, I'd be delighted to read it. Something by Graham Greene, perhaps, although I find his books are often too weighed down by all that Catholic angst. I love Victorian doorstoppers--usually anything by Dickens, Trollope or George Eliot is high on my list. In a more contemporary vein, I love Philip Roth, Milan Kundera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ian MacEwen. My favorite book last year was The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (I'm sure I got the spelling wrong), by Michael Chabon--that one was definitely a seven. My favorite books this year were Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides--I read it twice, once on my own, and once with my book group--and Small Island, by British author, Andrea Levy.
DrPat--I know what you mean about consistency. I'm always so disappointed when I fail to connect with another work by an author whose book I had enjoyed so much. Take Michael Chabon, for example. Adored Kavalier and Clay; Wonderboys, his previous novel, didn't do it for me at all. Go figure.
1. I have a friend who works at a bookstore whose taken to suggesting Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum when asked the question, "Uhm, can you recommend anything like the Da Vinci Code?" To my knowledge, no one's come back to tell her just how much they love the Eco.
2. I like your criteria.
3. My book club has the "books make you a boring person" rules. Nothing formula written, nothing ghost written. And for every five things we read about subjects we're passionate about, we have to read something completely foreign to us. It works out nicely as we all have pretty much the same tastes. (Although, our recent "outside our usual taste" actually broke rule 1. We read Tatum O'Neal's paper life. I didn't finish it.)
Katherine--I'm not surprised your friend at the bookstore hasn't had any positive feedback about Foucault's Pendulum. It's a notoriously difficult book and if he or she is suggesting at as an alternative to the my-easy-reader-like The Da Vinci Code, readers who take this advice are likely to be very disappointed--not to mention utterly baffled. It's like recommending George Eliot's Middlemarch to a fan of Danielle Steele. I would say Foucault's Pendulum is only for those who enjoy a more abstruse and challenging intellectual exercise, which, for me, what was precisely what I was looking for after reading The Code.
My book club doesn't have any hard and fast rules. We're on the look-out for "good books", although we often disagree about whether the selection falls into that category. Generally, I'm the odd person out: if I like it; they hate it, and vice versa. For example, they despised--despised--"The Life of Pi", by Yann Martel, a book which I quite liked, while they adored a book called "Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith" by an author whose name I can't recall, while I thought it was a failed attempt at "magic realism", a genre which, when it doesn't work, seems merely silly. They also detested the non-fiction "Reading Lolita in Teheran", which I found extremely compelling.
Great List. It is definitlely one of those things that give you a Deja Vu kind of a feeling, where you think you have read it before, but not really. It was all in your mind all the while and someone has just taken the trouble to pen it all down impeccably. I couldn't agree with you more on those parameters.
As far as Da Vinci Code is concerned, I really think that it is overrated. I found the flow very unconvincing at times, but I like it for the depth of research and all the background info.
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Oh well, that's me--a cranky contrarian, out of synch, once again, with the zeitgeist and at odds with conventional wisdom.
Don't pat yourself on the back or nothing. :)