RIP: The novel
A book that defends plagiarism, champions faked memoirs and declares fiction dead has the literary world up in arms
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David Shields’ new book, “Reality Hunger: A Manifesto,” is, depending upon whom you ask, a condemnation of the novel, a celebration of the sort of remixing and collage writing that often gets slammed as plagiarism, an indictment of plot, or a defense of memoirists who fabricate. Given his infatuation with playful writing (although a playfulness so earnestly willed seems an oxymoron), Shields shouldn’t be dismayed to learn that tracking responses to “Reality Hunger” across the Web is significantly more stimulating than the book itself. When you throw that many bombs, you can expect to choke on the smoke.