Friday, April 20, 2018

The hottest new literary genre










We think of literary genres as largely fixed and immutable: Mystery, Romance, Horror, Science Fiction, and so on. And largely they are. This makes it all the more exciting when one stumbles upon a whole new genre. This has just happened to me!

I have been reading a lot lately, hiding inside the house with my wife, on the couch, while a flowerless April hurled endless snow at us and cackled maniacally. Well cackle all you want, oh Deranged Spring, we have double paned windows, central heating, and very nice neighbors with a snowblower! We also have some bottles of wine.

Or, we did.

Anyway, the point is that I read a lot. And at one point in all this reading I read two wonderful books in a row. Do you know how often that happens?

Sadly, hardly ever.

But these two were great. One was a tiny bit of a cheat, since it was a re-read, but it was still great. And they were nothing like each other. One was a Juvy Fiction family story of surpassing charm and perfection, called The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street. The other was a smart, supernatural secret agency thriller called The Rook that our library system already shamefully owns too few copies of.

So where, you ask, does this new genre come in.

Ah, good question. In both books the main characters own a pet rabbit!

"That's an interesting coincidence, but how does owning a rabbit constitute a genre?" You inquire.

Oh, it's hard to explain, but as soon as you read one you'll totally know.
















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