“As a student, I realized that I had no aptitude for science, that foreign languages did not come easily to me, and that the study of economics turned my eyeballs to isinglass…. In literature, I adored much poetry but felt I could not draw intellectual breath for long on its high plateau; the drama…was for me a form that always felt a touch artificial. But, the novel, the novel from the very beginning…lit my fire and continues to light it today. The novel took me to places I hadn’t known existed, but in which I was delighted to find myself; it expanded my world like nothing else I had known, or, for that matter, still know.” (p. 19)
Joseph Epstein waxing poetic about his love of novels parallels my own love affair with books. Sure, I read some poetry and plays from time to time. But, my go-to delight is to sit down in a comfortable chair and read a wonderful novel.
Epstein examines dozens of novels in this slim volume. He notes that: “The novels of Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, and John Updike, so popular and widely written about in their day have already begun to lose interest. ” (p. 70). In the following chapters, Epstein adds Thomas Pynchon, Saul Bellow, and Vladimir Nabokov to that list. Then he turns to: “Here are six novelists and short-story writers whom I feel I do not need to read again:
- Graham Greene, whose combination of leftwing politics and Catholicism has never worked for me.
- Alice Munro, whose stories of infidelity in provincial Canada have always seem to me of limited interest.
- George Orwell, whose great work was in the essay, and whose novels, apart form the famous and politically useful Nineteen Eighty-Four, fail to come alvie
- Toni Morrison, with whose novels I have never had any luck, and have concluded are more for teaching than reading
- Jonathan Franzen, who seems in his fiction to write about people to whom he can feel superior
- S. Y. Agnon, four of whose novels I’ve read, always with high expectation, never with satisfaction, though I am told he is a writer who must be read in Hebrew in which he wrote. (p. 116)
As you can see from these examples from The Novel, Who Needs It? Epstein has some strong views on various writers. It might not come as a complete surprise to learn that Epstein considers Leo Tolstoy the greatest novelist (I disagree).
Reading a novel is a subjective experience. The huge variation in novels makes it practically impossible to generate a list of the Best Novels. Instead, we all have a list of our Favorite Novels, books that speak to us (but probably not everybody). The Novel, Who Needs It? has a simple answer: I do. And, I’m guessing…you do, too! Do you have a favorite novel? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
The Novel, Who Needs It? — 1
Acknowledgements — 127
Bibliography — 129
Index — 133
Looks like an interesting read. I’m more of a short story person but do enjoy discovering long forgotten, once popular novels in bookstores and curling up with them like they’re the prose counterpart of an old TCM movie you’ve never heard of but turns out to be pretty good. His comments on Franzen and Morrison are spot-on.
Byron, I found a lot to agree with in Joseph Epstein’s THE NOVEL, WHO NEEDS IT? And a lot to disagree with…
I don’t use words like “favorite” “best” and/or “greatest” except in jest because I appreciate different novels for very different but brilliantly done things in them. And I tried reading Agnon in the original Hebrew, but found it slow going because I don’t speak the language.
Dan, like Epstein, I have no flare for languages. English is enough for me!
If Epstein considers Tolstoy the greatest novelist, he evidently never read Harry Stephen Keeler. Or. perhaps he did.
Actually, I have a hard time differentiating from great novels and boring novels. All I ask is that they keep me turning the pages.
Jerry, I’m with you all the way. Keep the pages turning! And I prefer Anthony Trollope to Tolstoy.
On different days I have different favorites. The novel is the king for me to read. But I’d rather write a short story.
Patti, like you I have various moods in reading novels. Sometimes I want humor, sometimes suspense, sometimes a classic mystery.
I’ve reached a point where there are so many books I haven’t read, and limited time to read them, that I’m not sure I’ll ever go back and reread even some of my all-time favorites, such as THE WAY WE LIVE NOW by Anthony Trollope, EXCELLENT WOMEN by Barbara Pym, POINT COUNTER-POINT by Aldous Huxley, or THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James. Not to mention all the pulp, noir, mystery, and romance genre novels I consume like peanuts. As long as my brain and eyesight hold up, I’ll be reading—usually novels. I know I’ve quoted this before, but it’s entirely appropriate: “We buy books in the hopes that we will live long enough to read them.” —Schopenhauer
Deb, you and Schopenhauer have the right idea. I occasionally reread a book, but most of the time I’m trying to whittle down the stacks of books growing all over my home!
Books like this always sound interesting, but if I read them they just piss me off. Epstein sounds like one of those tenth rate rock critics trying to attract attention by calling the Beatles and the Stones the two worst bands ever. You know he’s full of shit and he knows it too.
I do believe that literary reputations tend to fluctuate more dramatically than those in the other arts. Just looking at American writers he mentions, nobody would argue that writers like Mailer and Roth still have the reputations they once had. And I never cared for Updike. Hemingway’s novels have been mostly discarded, but the short stories have kept their place. Among 20th century American writers, only Faulkner’s reputation seems to have survived intact, and his influence seems to be a factor in the steadily rising reputation of the late Cormac McCarthy.
As for my favorite novel, I’m keeping my brow right in the middle–it’s Larry McMurtry’s LONESOME DOVE.
Michael, I loved LONESOME DOVE when I read it and then watched the TV version. Larry McMurtry is an underrated writer.
I read a pretty nagative review of this in the Times or Washington Post, so I’m definitely going to pass.
Michael, I agree with you on the quality of LONESOME DOVE, though I am never ready to name any one book as my favorite. Another favorite is James Clavell’s SHOGUN.
I’m reading a favorite book of Deb’s, 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE NOVEL by Jane Smiley, and she certainly would take Dickens or Trollope or MIDDLEMARCH before Tolstoy (or Henry James, Deb.). I am really enjoying her book and I am past the halfway point of the 100 novels she read and reviewed for it.
It’s funny, but I’ve always struggled to get into Smiley’s fiction (with the exception of her very good short story/novella, “The Age of Grief”), but I’ve really enjoyed much of her non-fiction writing, especially 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE NOVEL.
Jeff, I’m a fan of 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE NOVEL by Jane Smiley, too. And SHOGUN. I get way more delight from reading Trollope than I ever did reading Tolstoy.
Lonesome Dove would be in my top 5. McMurtry is an underrated writer. My favorite book of all time can vary. Usually it would be Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Other close contenders would be The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, The Tin Drum by Gunther Grass and Dahlgren by Samuel R. Delany .
Steve, over the years I’ve found Delany’s DAHLGREN polarizes people: they love it…or hate it intensely!
Another fav of mine. The Sot Weed Factor by John Barth, who seems to have fallen out of favor.
Steve, I’m a fan of THE SOT-WEED FACTOR and GILES GOAT-BOY. But, you’re right: John Barth is becoming a forgotten writer.
Thanks, Steve, for mentioning THE SOT WEED FACTOR, which I hadn’t thought about in years. A paperback copy of it that I bought back in the sixties is still sitting here. When I originally read it I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever read.
Michael, like you I read THE SOT-WEED FACTOR and laughed. Funny, silly stuff!
I’m too busy reading novels, when I read anything other than magazines, to read books like this! PAAASSS!!!