Is Vonnegut science fiction? Is Atwood science fiction? Does it matter? Is Cronin's novel sci-fi, or does the dystopian novel have its own, separate genre? Or is the novel something else altogether, like Gothic or horror?
One can get too wrapped up in the boundaries of genre. If you think this post is long, trying reading this book Halfway through, I realized I was just never going to like it, but I pressed on to the grim end. If I didn't respect my friend so much, I'd have quit early on. If I had read what it was about, I'd probably have passed on it.
A friend I admire a lot recommended Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy. Sci-fi, despite being sometimes despised by the literary powers that be, often did give me what I wanted, so I decided to give it a more systematic try. Lit fic didn't really seem-in spite of its reputation as the serious branch of literature-to be scratching the particular itch for meaning I look for in a book. I mentioned a few months ago that I wanted to branch out from reading literary fiction. " Part of Peter knew it was all fake, nothing to take seriously." -from Justin Cronin's The Passage
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