Saturday, December 14, 2013

Is Kim Stanley Robinson Our Greatest Political Novelist?

Our Greatest Political Novelist? : The New Yorker:


The Gold Coast (signed)
You could argue that, if I didn’t fundamentally agree with his politics, Robinson’s fiction might seem contrived and didactic to me, the way Ayn Rand’s does if you’re not predisposed toward her brand of enlightened assholism. It’s true he likes to write lectures and speeches, but they’re more engaging than some of Tolstoy’s, who nearly succeeded in stomping my clinging fingers off of “Anna Karenina” with his ruminations on Russian agriculture circa 1870. But I don’t just admire Robinson’s ambitions or agree with his agenda; I’m not recommending his books because they’re good for you. Kim Stanley Robinson is one of my favorite novelists, period.
Stan's not just one of our greatest political novelists, he's one of our greatest novelists of any sort.

Gerry Canavan


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