Quote:
Originally Posted by jgaiser
Having a label doesn't make a great book. Get over it. Done.
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Completely agree. I'm primarily a science fiction and fantasy genre reader, but I've enjoyed Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I love experimental narratives, but I've immensely disliked anything I've read by Michael Ondatjee. I do read outside of genre fiction sometimes, but I can't help but look at the label "literary fiction" as suspect. It's just not a useful definition for me, especially when a book is *new* and the publisher is selling it as literary fiction. I rather think about books as "classics" and have their worth be vetted by readers over time. I know "literary" fiction is supposed to be a sort of "artier" high-brow kind of book, but that's so subjective that I can't deal with it as a label that's informative or one I could take seriously.