January 27, 2008
“I think that novels tend to fail not when the characters are not vivid or “deep” enough, but when the novel in question has failed to teach us how to adapt to its conventions, has failed to manage a specific hunger for its own characters, its own reality level.” –James Wood, “A Life of Their Own”
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Is that not the best piece of literary criticism to come down the pike in ages? I adore Wood’s writing.
I think that’s precisely why I have put down Chabon’s Yiddish Policeman book! It’s going back to the library unread and I am now declaring it his fault, not mine.