Mark,
Do I think about genre while writing criticism? Yes, as a
critic I must, because genre (and perception of genre by
readers and publishers) shapes the work. Especially in the
case of Himes, who began as a "literary" novelist and
progressed to the Harlem novels, questions of genre become
urgent.
As a writer, I respond quite differently. Do I think of the
Lew Griffin novels as crime novels? Well, yes...and no. The
whole idea of those books was to create a new kind of novel,
something that combined the delights of crime fiction, what I
love about it, with the delights of
"literary" fiction. I'd estimate that about half my readers
see them as simply novels, the other half as mysteries or
crime novels. Then there are those who find them unsettling
and too in-between, neither fish nor fowl....
Jim
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