Back in
the dark ages when I was an undergrad majoring in English, our Contemporary
American Lit professor made an interesting statement. He said one way to think
of literary isms was in descriptive terms. For instance, the romantic writer
creates a woman with a straight perfection of a nose while the realist describes
the nose with a wart on it. Next, we have the naturalist who describes that
nose with a hair growing out of the wart. You get the picture.
Let’s
consider traditional mysteries divided by type. First, we have the cozy which
generally avoids gore, provides amusing and/or eccentric main characters, and
has a somewhat predictable plot. There is often a slight romantic element. They
also tend to feature an amateur sleuth. Think Miss Marple or Sherlock Holmes.
Then
there are mysteries that are dark and more serious in nature, often police
procedurals or P.I. detective fiction. These usually center on men. P. D. James
wrote wonderful realistic police procedurals as has Joseph Wambaugh. Women
private investigators became popular in the late 1970’s and early 80’s. Think
Marcia Muller and Sue Grafton. Some of these authors are deeply concerned with
social issues. Think Sara Paretsky whose early novels in her series tend to be
more hard-boiled. Writers like Jan Christensen continue the woman P.I.
tradition.
Third, we
have the noir novel which is dark and often explores the sleazy underbelly of
society. Some of these are hard-boiled detective stories and more naturalistic.
However, the protagonist is usually not a detective,
but instead a victim, a suspect, or a perpetrator. Modern noir is more violent, at
times featuring serial killers and lots of gore. They can also be thrillers. Elmore
Leonard wrote successful noir.
Some
features, of course, are common to all three types of mysteries, others just to
that particular one.
Romances
are even more conventional than mystery fiction. However, not all romances
these days fit into neat categories or formulas. I’ll use the example of
Western fiction since my latest novel THE KILLING LAND is an historical Western
that Five Star/Cengage labeled as a romance novel.
The
historical Western generally occurs between the Civil War and the 1890’s,
roughly the time when the frontier vanished. The conventional Western novel
features a central male figure who is manly and triumphs over his antagonists.
Very few women are portrayed as anything but secondary figures. The heroes are
poker-faced and stoic. These action stories are geared to guy readers as in the
classic Louis L’Amour formula.
The
central character in my novel is a woman. Both my main characters, male and
female, have flaws and are less than perfect. They may be romantically involved
but they are realistically drawn. Today novelists are willing to research and
write about the real Western frontier, using realistic characters and true information
integrated into their books. This was my goal in writing THE KILLING LAND.
A lot of
what happens in the plot comes from reality and, yes, some of it is even
naturalistic. It’s a novel meant to appeal to a wider reading audience both
male and female alike. What I strived to do was create depth in
characterization as well as realism in plot and theme. Has it worked? Readers
will need to decide that for themselves.
Today’s
fiction combines various elements. It is in essence a new frontier. Short
fiction, as well as novels, are often more experimental in nature and a mash-up
of more than one genre and style.
As a
reader do you have a preference? Do you prefer romance, realism, naturalism or
a combination in the fiction you read? If you are an author what sort of novels
or short stories do you write?
