“I read Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which I think will subsequently be recognized as one of the first great novels of the 21st century.” ThinkingFirstsNovelCenturyStrange21st CenturyGreat Novels Author:Lev Grossman
“A novel with a bad middle is a bad book. A bad ending is something I've just gotten in the habit of forgiving.” BookNovelMiddleHabitForgiving Author:Lev Grossman
“The novel is a highly corrupt medium, after all - in the end the vast majority of them simply aren't that great, and are destined to be forgotten.” EndsNovelMajorityForgottenMediumsDestined Author:Lev Grossman
“Every year the literary press praises dozens if not hundreds of novels to the skies, asserting explicitly or implicitly that these books will probably not be suffering water damage in the basements of their authors' houses 20 years from now. But historically, anyway, that's not the way the novelistic ecology works.” IfsWayYearsBookSufferingHouseWaterNovelSkyPraisePressesDamageDozenEcologyBasements Author:Lev Grossman
“I read a lot of literary theory when I was in graduate school, especially about novels, and the best book I ever read about endings was Peter Brooks' 'Reading for the Plot. '” BookSchoolReadingNovelTheoryPlotGraduatesPeterBrooksGraduate SchoolLiterary Theory Author:Lev Grossman
“Nothing is wrong with you. You're not different. Everybody feels as bad as you do: this is just what writing a novel feels like. To write a novel is to come in contact with raw, primal feelings, hopes and longings and psychic wounds, and try to make a big public word-sculpture out of them, and that is a crazy hard thing to do.” FeelsWritingTryingDifferentHardFeelingsBigsNovelCrazyLongingWoundsContactThings To DoPsychicsSculpturePrimalHard Things Author:Lev Grossman
“One already feels like an anachronism, writing novels in the age of what-ever-this-is-the-age-of, but touring to promote them feels doubly anachronistic. The marketplace is showing an increasing intolerance for the time-honored practice of printing information on paper and shipping it around the country.” FeelsWritingCountryAgePracticeNovelInformationPaperIntoleranceHonoredTouringMarketplacePrintingShippingAnachronism Author:Lev Grossman
