The Great Gatsby was not a “generational novel" of the 1920s. Or if it was, arguably so. However, several novels certainly were "generational novels" that decade - subsequently buried by the Cold War Red Scare McCarthy Era establishment liberal-conservative propaganda and backlash: Home to Harlem and Jews Without Money were. And Daughter of Earth should have been. And these latter three novels did "capture what it was like to live in the 1920s for many different sorts of people." And their "genius" did seem "to peel back everything incidental and disposable and properly judge the entire age." https://fictiongutted.substack.com/p/the-great-american-whitewash-take
I wonder even if there can be such a thing as a generational novel or if it would be more accurate to talk about capturing a time of life (like a person’s 20’s or 50’s) like what the Rabbit tetralogy does.
Fully agree that “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” is probably the greatest millennial novel thus far. And that Lerner destroyed an otherwise fine book with his tedious moralizing epilogue (though, I think importantly, he’s not actually a millennial — much more heir to Gen X political moralizing, more Greenwell and Eggers than anything else). I did think Gasda’s novel came close conceptually to capturing millennial anxieties.
I must defend Private Citizen, for in the smallness of it's temporal time and place it's the only novel to acknowledge the essential change wrought by the internet; which is that it's no longer possible for a small number of elite institutions and platforms staffed by people coming from the same sort of places to hold cultural hegemony. The internet has let everyone cocoon themselves into smaller and smaller niches; and the whole enterprise of the generation novel seems absurd from the outset. The lived experiences of so many millions cannot be contained without a singular work.
Tulathimutte's great success in private citizen is acknowling this impossibility and zeroing in on the much smaller niche which he is able to capture warts and all, without becoming a self-hating pessimist of his own small world.
Great piece!
I’m giving you ten minutes to correct ‘shoe-in’ to ‘shoo-in’.
Done. Thank you, sir
The Great Gatsby was not a “generational novel" of the 1920s. Or if it was, arguably so. However, several novels certainly were "generational novels" that decade - subsequently buried by the Cold War Red Scare McCarthy Era establishment liberal-conservative propaganda and backlash: Home to Harlem and Jews Without Money were. And Daughter of Earth should have been. And these latter three novels did "capture what it was like to live in the 1920s for many different sorts of people." And their "genius" did seem "to peel back everything incidental and disposable and properly judge the entire age." https://fictiongutted.substack.com/p/the-great-american-whitewash-take
Why doesn't he write one instead of telling people how to write one? Stfu bro
I wonder even if there can be such a thing as a generational novel or if it would be more accurate to talk about capturing a time of life (like a person’s 20’s or 50’s) like what the Rabbit tetralogy does.
Fully agree that “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” is probably the greatest millennial novel thus far. And that Lerner destroyed an otherwise fine book with his tedious moralizing epilogue (though, I think importantly, he’s not actually a millennial — much more heir to Gen X political moralizing, more Greenwell and Eggers than anything else). I did think Gasda’s novel came close conceptually to capturing millennial anxieties.
I must defend Private Citizen, for in the smallness of it's temporal time and place it's the only novel to acknowledge the essential change wrought by the internet; which is that it's no longer possible for a small number of elite institutions and platforms staffed by people coming from the same sort of places to hold cultural hegemony. The internet has let everyone cocoon themselves into smaller and smaller niches; and the whole enterprise of the generation novel seems absurd from the outset. The lived experiences of so many millions cannot be contained without a singular work.
Tulathimutte's great success in private citizen is acknowling this impossibility and zeroing in on the much smaller niche which he is able to capture warts and all, without becoming a self-hating pessimist of his own small world.
Excellent criticism. Don’t forget the “lost generation” discourse, which is relevant enough.