Pulp fiction v the classics: summer reading
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What does “a good book” mean and how does it differ from a book you enjoy?
The Economist.
Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. I'm your host, Rosie Blor. Today we are blissfully abandoning the news and the real world to talk about something altogether more enjoyable. Fiction. And we're thinking about what books to take on holiday. What do you plan to read on the plane, on a sun lounger by the pool, or while you for once give in to all those screen time demands of your kids? We're talking escapism, relaxation, and happiness. I know, not our usual fare. These are the books you want to read, not necessarily the ones you're going to be bragging about or brandishing on the bookshelf behind you during your weekly meeting with your boss. Going under the covers with me are some of the esteemed bookworms of The Economist.
Catherine Nixie, our Culture and Britain correspondent.
Hello, thank you for having me.
Tom Standage, our Deputy Editor and World Ahead Editor.
Great to be here.
And from Paris, we're also joined by our culture editor, Alexandra Suich Bass. Good to see you. Today we're discussing Pulp Fiction versus the classics. What is the value of an escapist read? So let's start. I'm interested in what you mean by a good book. Katherine, why don't you kick us off?
Well, it's really interesting, isn't it? This discussion absolutely presupposes that a good book and a book that you enjoy are probably two different things. And the question is, why is that? What is good writing and what is worthy writing? And what do we mean when we say both? I mean, I love Jillie Cooper. I tried to say that she was a great novelist and it got taken out in an article. I it got corrected. A sub said, I'm not sure that she's a great novelist. So why is she not a great novelist? Because I love her novel. But she isn't. She isn't as you say, she's not one you'd put on the shelves behind you when you're on your weekly Zoom and certainly not in an interview, I suspect.
Tom Well, when I'm on holiday, I do want escapism and I read a lot of books for work. I read a lot of nonfiction and so I want fiction and I want escapist fiction. And it's actually not just when I'm on holiday. I remember when nine eleven happened. My immediate response was to go to the bookshelf and get a Patrick O'Brien off the shelf for my commute the next morning, because I just wanted to escape into, you know, some other period of history. Um, and I think that is an example of a series of books that are considered both extremely well written and escapist and enjoyable to read. So I think there is an overlap. I'm not going to be saying, Oh, this summer is finally time for me to read Ulysses. I'm going to be um reading things at the more fun end of the spectrum unashamedly.
It is funny, isn't it, how it's always Ulysses specifically that comes up with these things. But you could argue that it's when you're on holiday that you actually have the time to take to read something that involves a deeper read. Alexandra, where do you stand on this?
I would very much second that point. Throughout the year, people pile up books that they've either been given or that they bought as impulse purchases. And holidays are the time where you can read them. So I'm the type of person who brought George Orwell with me in 1984 to Turks and Caicos. I brought Hillbilly Elogy with me on my honeymoon. I think that there's no place like the sun and no time like holiday. to really escape into beautiful prose. So I am more in the heavy literary camp on holiday than I am in the escapist camp. But of course, the best books can merge both good writing and escapism.
Let's turn to a couple of our colleagues who've recommended their proposed summer reads for us. First we're gonna hear from Josie Delap, our Middle East editor.
Mm-hmm
If I were going to recommend books for summer reading, or indeed any time of year, I would recommend Jilly Cooper, specifically the Rutcher Chronicles, and even more specifically the first six of the eleven. They have the breadth of Charles Dickens or Anthony Trollope. They are truly sagas of human nature. But they have the wit and the humor of Jane Austen.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What does “a good book” mean and how does it differ from a book you enjoy?
0:03–6:22
2
Why do some readers prefer escapist fiction for holiday reading?
6:22–16:12
3
How do Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles blend classic satire with modern humor?
16:12–21:55
4
What makes Curtis Sittenfeld’s *American Wife* a “trash‑or‑literature” debate?
21:55–29:10