by: Jamie Fewery
It is a truth universally acknowledged that men read fewer novels than women.
Or, at least, that’s my experience, based on over ten years of working in the book industry. Take a look around your next Tube or train carriage if you don't believe me. Almost none of the male passengers will have a book in their hand, but a few of the females will. It’s a disturbing truth, but is the reason for it that men simply don’t like novels as much as women, or is it because there are so few novels published for them?
It might sound like a ridiculous question. There are of course thousands of books available to buy and thousands more waiting to be published. Surely men can't be that fussy? And what about sci-fi, and historical fiction? What about all the novels where people get murdered and things get blown up? Men love all that stuff, right?
Some men do, no doubt, but how many books that are published these days speak
to the modern male experience of life? How many address the issues around what
it is to be a man today, and a young man in particular, with all the attendant
crises that come with manhood?
The modern publisher is fond of categorisation. This is understandable when there are so many books and because of the need to sell to supermarkets (who like things to be as easily indentifiable as fruit and veg). Consequently, books are placed into brackets like gift, literary, self-help, sport and so on. But the one that got me thinking about all this is women’s fiction, broadly defined as stories that speak to women about their experiences of life today. It encapsulates everything from the fun and frivolous to more considered and intelligent matters. By its nature, women’s fiction is a broad genre. But it’s also an important one that acknowledges inherently that the reading of fiction has a great impact on emotional intelligence. A male equivalent of the genre simply doesn’t exist, or at least in decent numbers.
I should make it clear at this point that I'm not talking about literary fiction. Highbrow, intellectual novels have always existed, and appeal equally to women and men. I'm talking about commercial fiction; novels aimed at a chap who just wants something decent yet distracting to read on the train. Something well-written, readable and funny about modern life from a male perspective.
The genre certainly used to exist. Fifteen to 20 years ago we had Nick Hornby, Mike Gayle, Tony Parsons, John O’Farrell and others all successfully working within it, writing bestselling books that didn’t transport us to other times and places, but told us a bit more about those we were already in. It was a hugely successful market. Film adaptions were made and careers forged. It was so popular that the (unfortunate, reductive) term "lad lit" was attached to it.
Those men are still writing of course, but the genre itself has not expanded. If anything, it's shrunk. Hornby, O'Farrell and co have all grown older and no one has stepped into the vacant position to appeal to younger readers. The result is that men in their twenties and thirties seeking the empathy, advice and entertainment that High Fidelity offered back in 1995 are left wanting. Those men will have filled the void with socia media, smartphone games and websites. And once a man decides novels are not for him, can he ever be wooed back?
In an ideal world, books wouldn’t come with gender boundaries and the very best will break down those walls anyway (with David Nicholls’ One Day the perfect example). But I maintain that there is both a commercial and cultural case for more popular fiction that deals primarily with men’s issues. It is up to publishers to see that there millions of us out there who want nothing more than a good book to read; one that speaks to us about our lives and hopes and fears, just like those brilliant authors did a couple of decades ago.
from: Telegraph
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