The eclectic side of this collection is one of its strengths. I would like to underline here, as in the above review, that “Stripped” provides a timely snapshot of the current rise in microfiction.

I was reluctant to publish this review here, because it’s not literary fiction! But because some might consider Roth a literary fiction writer, I decided to go ahead and post. Please give this one a big thumbs down!

Before selecting any particular paragraph, I would like to add my own personal “requirement” to be met in order for a novel to fall into this category. These are strictly my own thoughts based on what I have striven to achieve in my own writing.

In writing, I try to give the reader an intimate experience of what the character actually feels. How can I make the reader feel, see or experience what the characters are seeing or feeling? I try to do this by painting with words the scene or the rush of emotion to create an immediate impact on the reader. It is a tall order to do this in the space of 250 words and so I’ve chosen a passage of 367 words.

Just a note to set the scene, which takes place near the beginning of the novel. Alexander, the protagonist of the trilogy and Britain’s finest landscape painter, is walking with his friend Peter, last year’s winner of the Man Booker, through an arcade in London. They are going to a reading at a bookstore by one of Peter’s professors from Oxford, who becomes a significant character in the story.

Page 15

” Both of them slowed their pace as they approached the arcade with its grand entrance composed of three Corinthian columns and topped with rounded arches. The broad, open steps invited one and all inward.
As they crossed the threshold, faux-gas lamps flickered on. Chandeliers, hanging in the passageway, suddenly lit up and glowed intensely in cheery greeting. Before them lay a dazzling black and white tiled corridor spread out like an endless checkerboard. Bow-shaped store fronts, framed in marble and brass, disappeared upward into dark, vaulted ceilings, but the chatter of crowds drew attention back down to the life streaming below.
A dream-like state crept over Alex. He removed his hat, which resembled a peaked hunter’s cap. He gaped upward and whispered in tones of reverence, “It’s almost like entering another world. Soft sounds…muted colors.”
Peter hunched into his heavy sweater as if seeking protection. “Feels like I’ve returned to the womb. Pretty soon, I’ll be claustrophobic.”
Alex continued to gawk. For him, the arcade was much more than a collection of shops connecting Piccadilly and Jermyn Street. It was a marvelous temple of art and commerce, steeped in history. London’s famed West End had started there almost four centuries ago.
His eyes glided lovingly over the colonnades, arches, filigreed latticework and ornate ceilings. With his dream-like state deepening, he could vividly imagine ladies in bustle dresses and men in elegant, bespoke-tailored suits and top hats, swirling out of the past and into the present. Right here in this arcade, politicians, poets and painters of centuries past mingled with their patrons—the wealthy aristocrats. All time had stopped and now stood as one.
Alex walked on and paused at the first shop—a tailor’s— where he surveyed bolts of the finest wools and silks spread upon the tables. Next door, displays of antique gold and silver trays and serving spoons were laid out among the china and crystal glassware.
Alex waved his arm to encompass the entire length and breadth of the arcade. “What would you call all this?”
Peter shrugged.
“It’s a glimpse inside the creative mind of thousands of human beings. It makes me wonder what’s more important—the artist or the art they produce?”

In this section I was trying not only to create a vivid mood which would bring the reader into that very arcade and see it through Alex’s eyes, but also to introduce one of the major themes of the novel—creativity.
I am indeed pleased that the review posted by Magdalena Ball made you think that it is a suspense novel because I passionately believe that if you are going to explore “weighty” themes or make the reader see the world differently, or engage him/her on some deeper level of thought, you must also give the reader a really good story, which will carry him or her through to the end.
My offer of a free print copy or download to the first three requesting it, still stands.

Why don’t you post a 250-word excerpt that illustrates the ways in which your writing is literary fiction?

Tori

I’m a little surprised that anyone can really judge whether or not a novel is literary fiction without actually reading it. I would be pleased to send both or either of you, free of charge of course, an electronic copy of the novel “The Fate of Pryde”, or a mail a print copy to you. Please let me know if you’d like me to do this. [PS: should any one else like a copy, I will do the same for the next three respondents.

Thanks
Mary E. Martin

The narrative themes are of substance or “weight”. Alexander Wainwright is a fine painter, famous for the “light” from the beyond which suffuses his painting. In relationship with his patron, Jonathan Pryde, Alexander must consider the duality of human nature. Pryde is on the one hand a brilliant and an extremely kind and generous patron of the arts. On the other, he is revealed as one who has earned his wealth by very disturbing and far less honorable means.

Alexander struggles with the issue of the duality of human nature—how can the very best and the very worst of mankind thrive in one human breast? The reader is challenged to answer the question. In resolving this dilemma he [and the reader] realize that the very best and worst resides in all of us and we cannot dismiss an individual as evil or a part foreign to us. In fact, each one of us is a tiny fragment of the whole universe and, at the same time, we contain the whole of the universe—good and evil—within us.

A corollary issue is considered. The novel also deals with the importance of the individual. If, as an individual human being, we are only the tiniest bit of the total universe, is the individual really of any significance or importance? An answer to that question is offered in the development of a subplot. By following Alexander’s narrative, the readers’ perceptions will be challenged and perhaps, as happens with Alex, compassion grows within. It is certainly my hope that any reader will be challenged to view the world perhaps with more understanding.

I believe that any reading of the novel will establish that the writing is of sufficient quality as to qualify as “literary”.

I would like to add that the novel may, at first blush, seem like just a suspense filled story. I do hope that is considered suspenseful, because I very much believe that any consideration of weighty issues must be driven and illustrated by an exciting plot. This is the second novel in The Trilogy of Remembrance, The first, also with Alexander as the protagonist, The Drawing Lesson.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond.
Sincerely
Mary E. Martin [author of The Fate of Pryde.]