True Enough

Christopher Beha, in his New York Times review of a recent novel, makes a good point about fiction writing. As one who cheerleads for the preeminence of story, even over fine prose, I have to concede his point:

"It’s a truism that genre boundaries are collapsing. In fact, there’s been a great deal of talk about how much 'serious' fiction writers can learn from writers of young adult novels or mysteries. This is all to the good. But now it might be time to set aside our reverse snobbery and admit that many genre writers have something to learn themselves, which is how to write. It may be too much to ask that a book like 'A Pimp’s Notes' contain more sentences worth reading twice, but it seems reasonable to ask that it contain fewer sentences not worth reading once."