Son of Silence: On Contemporary Fiction (On Contemporary Fiction)

Author: Michael Wood
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: The book is divided into three main parts—“Novel Map,” “Other Eras,” and “Stories and Silence”—in addition to the introduction and conclusion. Based on an integration of contemporary Western literature, Wood discusses 11 writers, from Toni Morrison to Samuel Beckett, from Gabriel García Márquez to Kazuo Ishiguro. On this basis, he proposes that the interest in contemporary literature has shifted from the novel to the story—that is, “the story has made a comeback and often appears within the novel—even replacing it.” However, the difference between the story and the novel lies in the fact that “the story is less demanding than the novel, more open to diversity, and less insistent on filtering memories from fantasy.” In other words, the story characteristic of contemporary novels is that they do not offer advice and possess qualities like “silence.” The concept of paradise—the joy brought by artistic works—still exists; the novel itself also carries the function of literary criticism, and so on.