When you write without a genre, as I do, it can be a bit lonely.
You don’t have anyone to look up to or over to. There are no similar people who are doing what you’re doing. I can’t say I write action or romance. I can’t say I do police procedurals or spy thrillers.
To be honest, doing book after book like that would bore me. Seeing a future of one character in one genre would make me close my computer and open a bottle and turn on a TV.
So it’s nice to find someone else doing it. Like Herman Koch.
I read The Dinner which is about two couples having dinner…a whole novel about two couples having dinner. Seriously. There are flashbacks. There are trips to the bathroom and side conversations but that’s the structure.
Yet it’s more compelling than many of the cop dramas that I’ve read which starts out with a gruesome killing followed by us learning about the flawed cop who much overcome…yawn.
So when I finished the dinner, I picked up The Ditch. I’m 25% of the way through and…no genre.
I’m not alone anymore.
