The art of fiction

America’s National Book Critics Circle discussed the comic novel last week. Here is a video of their discussion, which ranged from Tom Jones to A Visit from the Goon Squad. Interesting to note Beth Gutcheon’s observation that so many of the novels mentioned are first novels. Gutcheon argues that this is because the authors released so much hoarded anger and were never able to replenish those creative forces, which seems reasonable enough. But perhaps there’s an alternative explanation to exhausting catharsis?

Catharsis is also a theme of this interview with Sebastian Barry, author of On Canaan’s Side – the latest of his novels that mine the history of an Irish family to contextualise Ireland’s political and social delineations, and the place of the Irish diaspora. Barry’s insistence that fiction can serve a purpose as an aid to social history is powerful; an antidote to Britain’s recent squabbles about “readability”.