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Paula's avatar

Now I feel really bad that we encouraged you to read Lessons in Chemistry at book club… I think it might surprise you if you finished it, but who knows. I appreciate the discussion on upmarket fiction. Historically, I don’t read much contemporary fiction but I’ve been doing it more (blame The Village Bookseller) and this framework is helpful to process how I feel about these books (many of which I’ve loved, but also found forgettable). Interesting because I just finished The Violin Conspiracy and haaaaated it, in great part because of the reasons you didn’t like Lessons. And based on reviews, I expected it to lean more literary, but instead I found it to be a barely-upmarket example if there ever was one (and a tediously written one at that).

Oh, and A Gentleman in Moscow. Do it. It might meet many of the criteria for upmarket fiction, but the writing… oh, John, the writing.

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Caz Hart's avatar

Agree. For me, upmarket fiction is a bit irksome, a bit wanna-be. Often well written, technically, sometimes they seen to have been run past too many focus groups and taken on all feedback to appeal to a generic market. They are usually instantly forgettable, no flavour lingers.

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