Pigeonholing and putting down those who don't share your reading taste is right up there on my hot button list. Doesn't matter if it's literary people putting down genre folk or, genre folk bad-mouthing literary people. So when I see those who refuse to let their own reading or influences be limited to these arbitrary pigeonholes, attention must be paid.
Case in point today is a wide-ranging interview of fabulous crime writer Don Winslow at the new Mulholand Books site ( http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/ ) -- a site to bookmark and an imprint to support. Winslow writes brutal, fascinating novels about corruption and drugs. They are not breezy reads but they are complex, serious, riveting and very rewarding. He's got a new one coming out, Savages, that I plan to obtain as soon as possible.
Among his influences? Victorian novelist George Eliot's masterpiece, Middlemarch. This is the ultimate British novel during the height of its influence. I think even more highly of it than anything by the other Victorians I revere most. Here's a link to the whole interview:
http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/2010/08/10/don-winslow-interviewed-by-shane-salerno/#more-51
Good writing is good writing. Good storytelling is good storytelling. And the best authors, no matter where their own works are shelved, know this.
I thought highly of Winslow before but he's definitely riding even higher now.
And check out the Mulholland Books site every day for a new author interview.
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