Genre prejudice quote of the day.

[coalescent]

The Observer reviews Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem:

If he had real confidence in his Brooklyn material he wouldn't have felt the need to include an element of superhero fantasy. Superhero fantasy is unsuitable as a serious theme for literary fiction, for much the same reasons that Pot Noodles are out of place at dinner parties.

More generally, when I first heard about this book - via US coverage - it was being lavishly praised, and sounded very interesting. Over here, though, the reviews seem to be almost uniformly negative. I suppose a tale embedded in 1970s US pop culture just doesn't travel all that well.

Comments

[greengolux.livejournal.com]

Superhero fantasy is unsuitable as a serious theme for literary fiction,

And Rushdie's Midnight's Children isn't even remotely about people who might, if one were so inclined, be called superheroes?

Superhero fantasy is unsuitable as a serious theme for literary fiction

[cleanskies.livejournal.com]

I guess he's got magic ring fatigue from all those films recently.

But, you know. Nietsche, Yeates, Blake. The Mabinogion, in fact, pretty much any epic saga-type story you want to pull out. And up to now, Will Self, and many, many more of the we're-not-genre-fiction crowd.

But from the review, it didn't sound much like a superhero book to me. More like an horribly bloated and overblown kids' fantasy book.

Sometimes I think that the problem with superheroes is that they're actually to high, heavy and grand a concept for "realistic" fiction; not so much pot noodles at the dinner party as roast boar on your hominy grits.

Re: Superhero fantasy is unsuitable as a serious theme for literary fiction

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

But from the review, it didn't sound much like a superhero book to me. More like an horribly bloated and overblown kids' fantasy book.

For comparison, the New York Times review is here. Which still makes it sound somewhat like a kids' fantasy book, but thinks it's pretty good.

not so much pot noodles at the dinner party as roast boar on your hominy grits.

Nice. I might steal borrow that for use elsewhere. :)

[scribeoflight.livejournal.com]

The UK coverage has, generally, been a lot more negative than the US coverage. And much of the negativity does originate in a dislike of what is crudely described as the "superhero" theme. It isn't really a "superhero" theme anyway, it's far more subtle than that. And I thought the 'fantastical' elements of the story fitted smoothly in with the 'realistic' elements...

I do, in a way, agree with the criticism (from, I think, Michel Faber in The Guardian) that the second part is far too long... but, that aside, I've found most UK reviews to be a little harsh (and often very snobbish).

It really is a very good book.

And did that reviewer actually consider the implications of what he was writing? I mean: "Superhero fantasy is unsuitable as a serious theme for literary fiction..." What nonsense. No theme is unsuitable for literary fiction.

My judgement, in a couple of sentences, from my review of the year (in books):
"Ignore Late Review - this is a great novel. It's epic and vivid, beautifully written and exceptionally readable. Go on, buy it."

And my longer review:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/scribeoflight/79466.html#cutid1