![]() The first is to go beyond congratulating a text for being inventive and actually discuss what makes it so. I therefore have two goals in writing this review. ![]() In my view, these laudatory reviews actually do very little for the book or their readers’ understanding. What’s usually missing in these appraisals, though, is any discussion of what makes the book more inventive than its peers. If you agree that some books are more inventive - or perhaps less obviously derivative - than others, then you can appreciate the desire to award an author for such an accomplishment. Still, you can’t blame a critic for wanting to use this word. Heck, the very definition of a novel is to be new. All literature is original writing is an act of invention. ![]() Critics love to toss this word around, often using it as a synonym for “original,” but both are fluff words with regards to literature. When I think of George Saunders’ Tenth of December the first word that comes to mind is “inventive.” While this is certainly a nice thing to say about a book it doesn’t exactly make for an interesting book review. ![]()
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