The Good of the Novel

Reflections from prominent critics/novelists on the role of the critic in the modern age.

Liam McIlvanneyis the Stuart Professor ofScottish Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He won theSaltire First Book Award forBurns the Radicalin 2002, and his work hasappeared in theTimes Literary Supplementand theLondon Review ofBooks. He lives in Dunedin with his wife and three sons.All the Colours ofthe Town, his first novel, was published in 2009.
Ray Ryanis a publisher and critic. He is the author ofIreland and Scotland: Literature and Culture, Stateand Nation, 1966-2000, editor ofWriting in the Irish Republic: Literature,Culture, Politics, 1949-1999, and, with LiamMcIlvanney, co-editor ofIrelandand Scotland: Culture and Society, 1700-2000.

Introduction: Liam McIlvanney and Ray Ryan

1. Ian McEwan,Atonement
James Wood
2. Don DeLillo,UnderworldandFalling Man
Andrew O'Hagan
3. J. M. Coetzee,Disgrace
Tessa Hadley
4. Arundhati Roy,The God of Small Things
Amit Chaudhuri
5. Anita Brookner,Hotel du Lac
Mary Hawthorne
6. Martin Amis,The Information
Jason Cowley
7. Philip Roth,American Pastoral
Ian Sansom
8. Hanif Kureishi,Intimacy
Frances Wilson
9. Paul Auster,Leviathan
Kevin Jackson
10. Ross Thomas,Briarpatch
Michael Wood
11. Alan Hollinghurst,The Line of Beauty
Robert Macfarlane
12. Colm Tóibín,The Master
Benjamin Markovits
13. John McGahern,That They May Face the Rising Sun
Ray Ryan

Contributors
 

"In an age of drive-by reviewing, when every reader can tell the (electronic) world whether or not they 'like' a particular book, these 13 essays together constitute something of a manifesto, speaking up for the continuing vitality of that traditional form, the critical essay, a discursive piece of writing which is longer than a journalistic review but more accessible than an academic article. Almost all of them strike those sparks of understanding whereby we recognise that we half knew what they tell us yet didn't, in any articulated way, know at all. [...] What is going on, I'm tempted to say, is literary criticism, something more ambitious than much everyday reviewing. Such criticism, at its best, involves a sustained attentiveness to how a work of literature achieves its effects plus a focused analysis of what kind of achievement it represents and where that comes in the scale of things." - The Guardian
"The Good of the Novel is an instructive, entertaining and reassuring book: reassuring because it reminds us that real criticism was not dead, only sleeping, and that it is once again beginning to wake up." -- The Irish Times
" 'The Good of the Novel' is simultaneously an antidote to the drive-by review and a celebration and study of the novel... thirteen essays that are self-contained, elegant, and convincing... What makes these pieces so interesting is that they adhere to the idea that 'each novel writes its own constitution,' judging these books against the rules their authors have laid out for themselves at the onset, rather than some broad terms on which any novel can be judged... sometimes you want a long, thoughtful analysis, and the essays in this book deliver: they are simultaneously rigorous and, thankfully, just as accessible as (and maybe a bit more cogent than) your average Amazon review." - The New Yorker
'All the essayists give contemplative, sometimes personal, reactions to the books.This readable collection asks one not to forget valuable novels of the recent past. Of use primarily to those interested in the contemporary British novel.' -Choice Current Reviews for Academic Libraries
'All the essayists give contemplative, sometimes personal, reactions to the books. This readable collection asks one not to forget valuable novels of the recent past.'-Choice Magazine