The Science of Storytelling

Consider the beach-read blockbusters of Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult, who spring to mind thanks to their recent co-protest over the reviewing policies of the New York Times. Now imagine the exact opposite type of novel—unformulaic, thought-provoking, challenging to the reader’s intelligence, disruptive to the status quo, brimming with originality, flawlessly written—and you’ll begin to get a sense of British novelist Scarlett Thomas’ unique talent. Reviewers so frequently praise a novel by invoking a more renowned author, especially in the form of an ADHD-generation elevator pitch (Borges meets Dostoyevsky on crack! The twisted offspring of Stieg Larsson and Jane Austen! Etc.), that it strikes me as the highest possible compliment to say how hard it is to compare Thomas to anyone else, living or dead. Read the rest @ The Second Pass.