Modern Fiction Bleg

Every happy family is the same. Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way......Leo Tolstoy



Which may explain why unhappy, or as we say now-a-days, disfunctional, families are a more popular subject for novels.


It occurred to me that perhaps I ought to read some contemporary fiction on my Kindle. From the NYT's Michio Kakutani I learned that Jonathan Franzen's new novel - apparently the novel of the Summer - Freedom is "galvanic" and that his prose is both "visceral" and "lapidary." I recollect that Galvani was the guy who first noted that he could get a dead frog's leg muscle to contract by zapping it with some electric current. Viscera, of course, are those hidden internal organs, whereas the lapidary, I seem to recall, is concerned with the polishing of stones.

Now I can understand why a family might get a bit unhappy if someone was conducting galvanic experiments on their viscera in order to polish their stones, but despite my interest in things biological, electrical, and geological, I'm far from sure that it sounds like a good subject for a novel.

Anybody have an opinion? Or should I just re-read - again - HP and the Deathly Hallows.

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