Who gives a shit about a political novel?
There's a lot to unpack here, Jesse. I don't mind a novel with a message, as long as it's not "on the nose", then I feel I'm being preached to and my eyes glaze over, indeed. Which is why, for me, the books that strike a political chord are often set in a world that is not our own, or not exactly our world. 1984, Handmaid's Tale, or Fahrenheit 451 hit fascism hard because they ask us to take a jump into what might be (and often seems to be now... not when the books were written). I'll go even further: I cringe when I read a political line in a book that is not political. It makes me feel like the author tries to be relevant or current and it comes across as a throwaway and fake. Give me John Le Carré instead who shows cynicism and duplicity through people, not ponderous ideological screeds.
There's a lot to unpack here, Jesse. I don't mind a novel with a message, as long as it's not "on the nose", then I feel I'm being preached to and my eyes glaze over, indeed. Which is why, for me, the books that strike a political chord are often set in a world that is not our own, or not exactly our world. 1984, Handmaid's Tale, or Fahrenheit 451 hit fascism hard because they ask us to take a jump into what might be (and often seems to be now... not when the books were written). I'll go even further: I cringe when I read a political line in a book that is not political. It makes me feel like the author tries to be relevant or current and it comes across as a throwaway and fake. Give me John Le Carré instead who shows cynicism and duplicity through people, not ponderous ideological screeds.