Literary Fiction = Reading Assignment Thoughts

copied and pasted my comments from the discussion forum: Here's my description of the book:
Read the Plot Against America
Philip Roth, of course, qualifies under the definition of Award-winner. Among his awards are the Pulitizer, Natinal Book Award, National Book Critics Circle and PEN-faulkner awards. He's also been a finalist for these awards with other titles.

The Plot Against America asks us to consider a provocative change in US history. What if Charles Lindbergh, isolationist, anti-Jewish, perhaps "supporter" of Nazi Germany, defeated FDR for the American Presidency in 1940.?

Readers look through the eyes of young boy, Philip, part of an extended Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey. Roth mixes in Philip's viewpoint, other family member's reactions and life-changing events, what happens in the Jewish community - Roth describes an already-existing Jewish/Gentile segregation in the community -- where people worked, where they shopped, etc. that disintegrates into violence in the Lindbergh administration. And, Roth describes how the nation changed - pogroms in the U.S.

You really get to know the Roth family( yes, he uses Roth and Philip), especially Philip, who bumps up against the challenges of any growing boy while seeing the effect of fear and terror on his family and neighborhood.

I very much enjoyed the nature of the story and the writing. I would say this probably isn't as a challenging a book of literary fiction to get into as other titles I might have chosen. Stylistically, there were no challenges in reading this - no experiments with prose style, etc. So I enjoyed myslef but didn't challenge myself -- although the book might not have been complex, it was multi-layered in terms of "community" -- individual, young Philip; his family; his community; the United States. So, do I need to feel guilty . . . .or level of difficulty doesn't Have to be part of the literary fiction definition.

I chose Roth first as my author and then easily chose The Plot Against America as his title because of its storyline and an interest in history and location, having been born near Newark, New Jersey. I would recommend ths title to a reader. And maybe people hesitant about reading fiction would be intrigued by the story and not need to hear the label "literary fiction" while others interested in "literary" or serious ficiton would jump at the book (2004) because it's by Roth.

Unless people come in looking for a particular title/author or the latest book, I need to improve my reading of review sources, read more literary fiction, and find online at other sites or create within our library - a list of "can't miss" literary fiction. "Can't miss" is a phrase I heard Joyce Saricks use as list used at her library if staff were stumped or just couldn't think of a title at the time . . . I think such a list would be very helpful for literary fiction!



Here's what I discussed in the discussion forum and my remaining comments about the reading are below this forum entry:

Literary Fiction
How do you define literary fiction? I see a tie-in with the word literature. I studied literature in high school and college and was assigned to read the "classics" of literature. Won't some of the titles we describe as literary fiction become the classics from the 20th and 21st centuries? I can accept a definition of Award-winning books or Saricks' description of often character-centered, provocative, complex or multi-layered literature and the reader's enjoyment of prose or writing style. For example, I can remember reading Middlemarch in college and, even with its length, going back and re-reading sentences or paragraphs just for the beauty of the language. But, of course, I accept that there is good and bad books labeled as literary fiction (even award winners) that turn people off and cause such books to be labeled pretentious. I, too, would be turned off by affected prose such as "furious dabs of tulips stuttering" which McCrum cites. What do you think some of the code phrases/words are for a customer who really is looking for lit fic? People will ask for award winners and many are more specific - come in with a list and refer to Booker or Pulitizer, etc. just as other people come in with the latest picks in People Magazine. People have used words like "serious" fiction, academic fiction, something to keep me interested, something I can dig into. Others ask what's on the best-seller list, what's a book everyone is talking about, ask about or have a list from NPR, an author they've seen on TV, does X author have a new book out, what would be a good book to read, what would be a good choice for our book club, what good fiction is out there, etc. <> Or, people say, I spent the summer reading light fiction and I'd like something heavier/more challenging for the winter. . . . Or, I enjoyed this books so much, what is similar . . . .


Additional comments:
This seems to be a category of fiction that people will disagree about. Does it mean anything to the public if we label things literary fiction or is the label pretentious as the McCrum article suggested? And what about the label we use in our library for fiction: we use general fiction to designate what is not a genre - what does this mean to the public? And we call romance a genre in our paperback collection but not in our hardcover or books on CD collections - does tis confuse the public? And does any library shelve literary fiction separately?

I do see lists on library websites so these are helpful for RA when someone asks for a book that could be considered literary fiction.

So, I'm not sure if I'll use literary fiction as a label myself. I do know I don't read books that are generally considered literary fiction so there's a "fear factor" here in not knowing much about these books or authors. Plot Against America, which I read, was a safe choice since I really like history and think I said before was born near Newark - so I chose something within my comfort level and that was easy to read - had a plot and fairly fast-paced.

LibraryThing often has literary fiction suggestions by members for both fiction and nonfiction titles I've searched. Often, I see the phrases "best book I ever read" or "one of the best books I've ever read" or "I've read this three times"

One of the things I did during this course was pull award winners (Pulitzer, Booker, National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Awards, Pen-Faulkner Awards ) for a display. There were some checkouts and I saw people reading the book jackets but not as high circ as other displays. One of the things I should try to do is check the circ on particular titles and authors and get a sense of which "literary fiction" authors are popular in our area. University people must be finding literary fiction at the university library so maybe that's a prime audience.