The number of novels published in the U.S. nearly doubled between 2002 and 2007, according to a Bowker study of the American publishing industry published earlier this year—and the amazing thing, according to Michael Orthofer at The Literary Saloon, is that nobody’s talking about it. And by “it” he means not only that explosion of new novels and short stories, but also the way many book review sections have chosen to ignore all that literature in favor of nonfiction titles.
“What world are they living in?” Orthofer asks of the New York Times Book Review specifically and most of the National Book Critics Circle by extension. “Obviously one where fiction doesn’t count for barely anything.” (Of course, defenders of the status quo will point out that they are reviewing some fiction in the—as they will be sure to remind you—limited space available to today’s mainstream media book sections, but others will counter that the spectrum covered is rather narrow compared to what’s out there.) “So what will it take for fiction to get the review coverage it deserves?” he asks. To which I’d pose another question: Why should we bother waiting?
Of course, much of this fiction is in categories that would never get anything more than lip service, if that, from today’s mainstream critics… one of the most obvious factors in the evolution of virtual communities to discuss those books, whether they’re grounded in one person’s blog or in a larger social networking framework. But those communities are also opportunities to champion the fiction that might get covered in the mainstream media but gets squeezed out by nonfiction titles in an effort to deliver “news about the culture,” which is a good thing, since most mainstream book reviewing stinks, and stinks bad, so it’s not like reviewing all those uncovered books would be much of a favor, anyway.
Posts like Orthofer’sserve to underscore an uncomfortable reality: If mainstream book coverage is going to recover its lost relevance, it won’t be because readers decide they were fools to abandon book reviewers. It will only happen as editors and publishers realize that they were fools to let their audience migrate to more meaningful venues—and make a serious effort to catch up to where today’s literary culture is really taking shape.