Interesting post on the length of modern novels, and whether they should be that long or not.
"Literary novels appear to have universalised their length to at least 300 pages. It is a rare publishing event when a respected author produces something dinkier. Ian McEwan did it in 2007 with On Chesil Beach, his story of a disastrous wedding night; in 2010 Bret Easton Ellis gave us Imperial Bedrooms, his first novel in five years, which concluded in 250 pages and was all the more arresting for it."
It all depends on the work. I did think that Freedom was too long, but I wanted more about the son and his wife with the half-formed personality. Imperial Bedrooms was more of a novella than a full novel, but I didn't want to continue any longer than it did.
No comments:
Post a Comment