Welcome to the first virtual meeting of the Novel Book Club on Book Bound Saratoga. If you’ve read our first selection, A Novel Bookstore, fantastic! If not, no worries–read the review and discussion questions and maybe it will be your next read. For those of you who are true bibliophiles, I hope that A Novel Bookstore managed to feed your love of books and inspire you to read even more.
Welcome to the first virtual meeting of the Novel Book Club on Book Bound Saratoga. If you’ve read our first selection, A Novel Bookstore, fantastic! If not, no worries–read the review and discussion questions and maybe it will be your next read. For those of you who are true bibliophiles, I hope that A Novel Bookstore managed to feed your love of books and inspire you to read even more.
Laurence Cosse delves deeply into the world of literature and the modern state of book publishing with the creation of The Good Novel, the subject bookstore whose mission it is to only sell “good novels.” The initial stock selections are chosen by a secret committee–the eight French-author members don’t even know with whom else they share this honor. One might consider that judgment what is a “good novel” is entirely subjective, that it is a decision that changes with each reader. But the purveyors of The Good Novel, Francesca and Van (short for Ivan), have a very set idea of what is considered “good.” There are classics, yes, but more specifically, classic or modern, they are books that feed us. Books that validate our feelings, that inspire us, books that affect and respond to our condition. The bookstore is intended to be a place where the like-minded can come, read, browse, and converse in a welcoming and unhurried atmosphere.
What I think Cosse (and of course translator Alison Anderson) accomplishes wonderfully is the way that she exposes the ties that books, stories, reading, and writing, have on our lives and relationships. The lives of the book’s characters are often affected by what they read or write, in a way that is very profound. Personally, I found this very relatable; I often tie certain memories or emotions with books I’ve read or characters I admire. For those who love books, it’s not simply about the story, it’s about the way a story resonates with life. Is this to say that one should never touch a beach read? A mystery? A humorous novel? Not at all. Will all those be good novels. No. But being entertaining absolutely does not exclude a novel from also being a good novel.
In a city like Paris, where the literary and the artistic have a rich culture and long history, The Good Novel is both lauded and vilified. It generates a discussion about worthy and unworthy literature and subsequently a debate on who exactly has the right to decide what makes a good novel. Of course, publishers and reviews make these judgments everyday and they go unnoticed, without comment or criticism. Opponents of the bookstore cry elitism and snobbery. Fans of The Good Novel support its dedication to fine literature and are thrilled to have a place where they can lose themselves in the books they love.
Ultimately, the attacks on the bookstore become more than just slanderous and turn criminal when several members of the secret selection committee are attacked. Though business is still booming, the future of The Good Novel is at risk. What is it about the opinions of others that so riles people of other minds? The endeavor was undertaken with the best of intentions, with no thought to harming or offending others, and with little risk of undermining any other bookstore’s success.
What struck you most about the premise of The Good Novel? What position do you take on the matter: great homage to fine literature? Or a monument to cultural elitism? What makes publishers or critics–or Oprah, for that matter–more worthy judges of a good novel than voracious readers and lovers of literature? Along with these questions, here are some others to consider:
Do you agree, as Van stated in the novel, that “one of the most fortunate purposes of literature is to bring like-minded people together and get them talking?” Can it also bring together people of disparate opinions and spark conversation?
Francesca believes that “the perfect bookstore, the kind where you’d sell nothing but good novels, could only be viable in a big city with a strong cultural tradition, like London or Paris.” Do you think this is true? How do you think a bookstore like The Good Novel would fare in a small town? A rural community? Your town?
Before working with Francesca at The Good Novel, Van worked in another bookstore, owned by someone not as like-minded. In that store he had what he called “honey shelf,” where he gathered what he considered the very best books in the shop. What would be on your “honey shelf”?
In a response to anonymous attacks on The Good Novel Francesca composes something of a “readers’ manifesto”:
“We want books that are written for those of us who doubt everything…that cost their authors a great deal, books where you can feel the years of work, the backache, the writer’s block…splendid books…books that prove to us that love is at work in the world next to evil, right up against it, at times indistinctly, and that it always will be, just the way that suffering will always ravage hearts. We want good novels.”
Do you want this from your novels? All of the time? Some of the time? Never? What do you want from a novel?
How would you describe your ideal bookstore? Do you have a favorite bookstore?
The discussion for this month’s selection will remain open for one week. Please add your opinions, questions, debates as Comments.
February’s selection will be Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. Review and discussion will be posted on February 15.
In one week, when discussion on A Novel Bookstore has concluded, I will post voting selections for our March book.
I am going to have to read that first one….Have you ever read If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino? It is also a book about being a reader. The first 33 pages will catch you and keep you reading all the way through. Gone Girl I have heard great things about as well.
Hi Juliet!
Glad you could visit–I hope you can read Gone Girl and join in for February!
I have read If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler! In fact I wrote a paper on it in grad school that I presented at a conference–it’s one of my favorite of Italo Calvino’s books!