What makes a good novel? Plot? Characters? Subject matter? An enduring theme?
What are some of your favourite novels over the past few years? The Da Vinci Code? The Corrections? The Time Traveler’s Wife? Something dark, like The Road by Cormac McCarthy?
Is your fancy “literary” novels or blockbusters, like works by Ken Follett or John Grisham or Stephenie Meyer? Do you like romance, thrillers, mysteries, dramas? What about favourite authors? Which ones?
I’m interested in knowing what turns your crank when you pick up a book of fiction. Give me some advice about my own novel: tell me what you’d like to see in a novel about medieval monks. No promises, but I’d be interested in what you have to say.
Of course, this is a bald advertisement to invite you, dear reader, to comment on my blog. My thanks to those who have weighed in so far, but how about some more incisive feedback?
What’s your novel style? Look forward to hearing from ya!
I like a novel that introduces me to characters whose paths will cross at some later point. Develop them, surprise me at the most unexpected times with another twist (or take) on who they really are. Let me feel the ground shifting under my feet. Suddenly I’m no longer sure who’s who. I don’t want a lot of editorial help understanding or solving things. John le Carre respects my intelligence and I want you to do the same. Two thirds of the way through the novel when I discover that the monk isn’t really who I thought he was, and the young knight is really his son, I will be satisfied. It won’t be spelled out, however. I’ll have to turn back the pages to 104 and rediscover that the night he was mediating in the cathedral was all metaphorical.
Thank you very much for the comment, Larry! I like that element of surprise as well. LeCarré is very high in my own all-time favourite authors, though I haven’t read anything since The Constant Gardener. And while The Da Vinci Code was a guilty pleasure, I loved the way everything changed every 10 pages or so!