Great Literature

As I've become a full-time author I've thought a lot about what I hope to achieve.  Yes, I would love to sell books.  (Who wouldn't?)  But there is more.  I would like to write a book that makes people feel and think, one that stays with them, one that they tell their friends, "You've got to read this book."  

I would like to write a book that gets favorable reviews, but this is a tricky one.  This is such a subjective thing.  What has prompted this blog today is the current book I'm reading.  It is a Pulitzer Prize winner, and I hate it.  I have been trying to find redeeming features in it.  The language has a nice flow to it.  I'm not sure what else to say.  It has two running themes: suicide and adultery.  If this book were a true snippet of reality there is no marriage out there that has not experienced adultery at some point.  And suicide is something everyone considers on a regular basis.  

So, I guess if I can't see why this would be a Pulitzer Prize winner, I'll never be writing one.  Well, what a relief!  Now that I've accepted that fact, I need never feel disappointed by not achieving that level of success.

I do hope, however, that one day you will read one or more of my books and you might say to your friends . . .