Pop lit

I don't read a lot of popular novels. Damn few. Now and again I try. I remember trying several times to read The Da Vinci Code but never getting far, the last time throwing it across the room in disgust after about a dozen pages, so terrible did I consider the writing. However, there are a few pop lit writers whom I greatly admire. Elmore Leonard is at the top of the list. And more recently, Joseph Kanon, who writes WWII and Cold War thrillers. I just picked up his latest set in Hollywood during the witch hunt years.

I prefer Kanon to Leonard because I relate to his stories better. I love his first novel, Los Alamos, a thriller set in the Manhattan Project. The new one is starting out well and might rival this as my favorite by the end. We'll see.

Of course, I have my own novella about the Cold War, Baumholder 1961 but this is a literary book in the tradition of Catch-22 and M.A.S.H., not a pop lit book. The closest I've come to a popular genre are two mysteries, The Deadly Doowop and Dead Body In A Small Room, which was a finalist for one of those awards created to make authors buy into marketing plans. Most awards and contests are like this, based on the ego needs of authors rather than on the literary health of the culture.

---

Yale is beating up Columbia pretty badly in the first half. But what a joy to watch a football game that looks like a game, played by students enjoying themselves, rather than by egomaniac future football pros.