The Beast reading.
There used to be many novels that dealt with the workplace. Look back at books like THE JUNGLE, the novels ofTheodore Dreiser, the novels of Steinbeck, or ever Sinclair Lewis. We learned about various professions once upon a time. Malamud told us how a grocery store works. We learned about the life of vets, farmers, doctors, teachers, scientists.
The workplace seems to be a rare setting nowadays. Is it because of the death of the lower- middle class novel? Is it because most writers are college instructors or don't have day jobs. Are they coming from a different milieu? Or has the workplace become boring? If a novel is set in a workplace, it is used only for interactions between employees. There are a few exceptions I can name. Philip Roth told us much about glove factories in American Pastoral. O'Nan set a book at the Red Lobster of late. But on the whole, we are interested in family dynamics, relationships, other things.
Did work become too dull to describe? Can you think of a novel that told you about how something was made or done? Are the lives of ordinary people being overlooked in novels?
26 comments:
You know you're right. I didn't even realize this fact. I do know some books with a teacher as a protagonist. But maybe it's more because TV covers those sorts of things now.
I would point to two books about work-- sort of, the first is Resume with Monsters which was my first FFB, and Kings of Infinite Space By James Hynes as books that deal with the horror of the work place. I would say that these are fantastic takes on the work place book, but there is a truth in them.
I can't think of many books these days that are 'straight' looks at work, unless you want to count a lot of the police, doctor or lawyer books. I think there is also a subset of books about teaching and teachers, along with students and school that are still popular.
As to why novels about work are missing from the shelves? Publishers don't think they will sell, people don't want to know that most people want to escape from their day to day by reading about lives more exciting than their own, or people tend to turn to non-fiction works about working-- take your pick.
Maybe on the coasts writers don't have day jobs, but I know that a lot of young writers have day jobs, and of course writers in the middle tend to have day jobs as well.
Oh yes, I have read several about how a murder mystery is solved! As an avid crime fic enthusiast I could also mention several featuring journalists working a bit and spending much time solving crimes while being nearly killed.
But apart from these - not really. In Denmark the 70s were all about social realism and the work of all and sundry so I am not sure I really miss this trend yet.
It's true, a lot of writers have day jobs, but I think the fact that so many writers now go through university in writing programs, right through to MAs and PhDs in creative writing those day jobs are just that - jobs, not careers.
I do think you're right, Patti, that the lives of ordinary people are overlooked in literature. One of the reasons I like crime fiction is that the characters are often ordinary people.
The details of people's lives are often missing from books.
And one of the things that bugs me about a lot of books is when the characters have jobs that couldn't possibly pay for the lifestyles they have.
Steve Berry tells you a lot about the bookstore business in THE TEMPLAR LEGACY. Of course, the greatest American novel (so far), MOBY DICK, tells you all you really want to know about the whaling business.
Quite a few years ago on the news a young girl remarked that she was going to work as a waitress until she got a "real job". I think the younger generation thinks in terms of careers instead of jobs. They don't want to know how their food got on the table, just that it did. Same with everything else they buy and probably the reason that we don't see jobs/work places in stories anymore.
I've read The Fountainhead but at the moment I can't think of another book I have read that takes place in a office setting. Of course, there are plenty of films.
Fredric Brown's one mainstream novel was The Office, a great book that deserved reprinting.
Another work-related book that should be on everyone's list: Evan Hunter's The Blackboard Jungle.
As for current work-related books that don't involve cops, lawyers, PI's, doctors or spies, I'm drawing a blank.
This post made me think of MAIN STREET, ARROWSMITH and BABBIT. Are those considered "workplace novels?
Perhaps Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mystery novels are workplace. Maybe. But then any cop novel could be considered that way, right?
I wonder if more regular workplace books aren't popular because people get enough work AT work, and if they want to read work stuff there's a plethora of non-fiction to satisfy the need.
Great question, and I think you're right: normal people in normal jobs do get overlooked. I wonder if that's because readers don;t want to read about them. I tried to make my PI as much of a "normal" guy placed into an abnormal situation as I could, as have been consistently told he's too normal, which was code for boring. (Some chose not to use the code.) So I'm damaging him up a little to see how it goes.
Yes, work seems to be more visually than verbally interesting so you do see it much more in movies.
Details are missing; we are so much in a hurry to get to the plot, the action.
Too much about whaling for me; never been able to finish it. Same with Magic Mountain and the TB sanitarium business.
Sinclair Lewis did it very well-he wrote about actresses, ministers, businessmen. Horrors of the workplace you do see. But what about the actual details of ordinary jobs.
Yes, the blue-collar novel has disappeared too.
Maybe that's why Richard Stark's Parker novels are so compelling: the actual details of setting up a robbery. Donald E. Westlake who wrote under the Stark pseudonym said he would receive mail from convicts who congratulated him on accuracy of his novels. MOBY DICK is mostly a guy novel. A woman makes a brief appearance, but it's mostly a cast of men on a nightmare mission.
My husband's favorite novel. You are made for each other.
What comes to mind are romance novels. A few years ago I was hoping to open a bookstore that combined the two top rated genres: mystery and romance. I had to research the romance side since I didn't really read it. I still pick up RT magazine every once in a while. Anyway, in romance novels I've seen bridal consultants, florists, PR people, retail people, etc. In mystery there is Elaine Viets series and I imagine other than tripping over bodies the amateur sleuths could qualify as slice of life everyday working people -- store owners, real estate people, and so forth
Well, these are not recent but remain worthwhile reading if you're looking for ways workplaces (employment and careers) figure prominently:
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP
DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP
ORYX AND CRAKE
THE MARCH (Doctorow)
McTEAGUE
MISS LONELYHEARTS
THE CAINE MUTINY
BRAVE NEW WORLD
THE NAME OF THE ROSE
Okay, I know this list isn't exactly responsive to your question. But, heck, I just think they are good books (certainly not relatively new ones with the exception of one or two) in which the depiction of a person's workplace or career helps make the book much better. If this is too much off topic, well, accept my apology.
If you really want to dig into the topic, you can dig up a copy of _The Businessman in American Literature_ by Emily Stipes Watts (University of Georgia Press, 1982) in which you'll find an interesting "scholarly" study of the way the American businessman (and woman) is portrayed literature.
Now, having mentioned the Watts book, I would be remiss if I didn't wax nostalgic again by mentioning William Dean Howells' _The Rise of Silas Lapham_, widely regarded as "the first major novel to center on the American businessman and to treat this theme with a realism that was to foreshadow the work of modern writers" (from advertising blurb).
By the way, with Christmas right around the corner, so to speak, don't forget to revisit the great businessman story, Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."
But again, I've drifted too far away from the basic premise for your question.
RT-read all but Caine Mutiny and the Doctorow book. Even a dentist was interesting once upon a time. The Watts book looks good. I'll check our university library.
Romance novel, huh? I guess they would include work related to the bridal industry. You would like we'd learn more about the funeral industry reading crime novels.
But we are not interested in ordinary people anymore. The herd has been turned to be interested in the Bling Bling world of E-TV and Gossip nightly news.
No one cares about the struggles of living anymore because so many are living the struggles trying to be like them they admire.
Patti--most of the romance fiction I've read has nothing to do with weddings, however likely that prospect was in the near future. It might be what I've read (mostly romantic suspense, horror, and erotica), but I suspect you're still wresting with those Assumptions, there.
I don't remember much about it, but what about The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson?
I have the book but think I only ever saw the movie with Gregory Peck.
I see PK beat me to it, but, yes, romance novels often have a great deal of detail about work/jobs. Lavyrle Spencer (who, I believe, no longer publishes) used to include occupations as diverse as beekeeping, interior design, typesetting, among many others in her books. She's just the first writer who popped into my head, but many contemporary romances include jobs and how they're done.
On a side note, I watched "They Drive by Night" on TCM a few days ago and I was thinking that we don't see many movies that involve jobs and work anymore. The movie was great and it was all about the start-up of the long-distance trucking industry.
'American Psycho'? And, as for short stories, 'Bartleby'?
I'm late (as always), but I just read a great post, "The Grapes of Mild Outrage" on class issues in fiction at Mark Athitakis' blog, American Fiction Notes here:
http://americanfiction.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/the-grapes-of-mild-outrage/
I'll say no more, except that I had to admit that I was nodding the whole time I read the post.
I believe the MFA track to fiction writing is in large part why you don't see many (if any) recent novels about working people.
One recent exception I can think of: KNOCKEMSTIFF, the recent short story collection from Donald Ray Pollack. Also, I suppose Denis Johnson writes about working people too.
I have begun reading a thriller in which old-fashioned farming takes up quite a bit: Swedish Inger Frimansson, The Island of the Naked Women.
Interesting aspect for me as I worked as a farmhand when I was quite young.
Post a Comment