I’ve just started reading Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass, a craft book that’s been on my reading list for quite a while. What’s stood out to me the most so far is Maass’s definition of what a breakout novel does, not just what it is. This is what he says:
Breakout novels are written from an author’s passionate need to make you understand, to expose you to someone special or to drag you somewhere that it is important for you to see. No breakout novel leaves us feeling neutral. A breakout novel rattles, confronts, and illuminates. It is detailed because it is real. Its people live because they spring from life, or at least from the urge to say something about life. Their stories challenge our hopes, plumb our fears, test our faiths and enact our human wills.
As I was reading this definition, the first book that came to my mind was Ender’s Game. The first time I read that book, it did all of the things listed above. I’ve certainly read other stories that have made me feel this way, but I think Ender’s Game affected me the most deeply, perhaps because I’d never read anything like it before.
Are there books that left you rattled after you read them? What was it about them that left a lasting impression?
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Great question. I’m in a book club and we’ve read 80+ books. The ones that probably rattle the most are the non-fiction. But several fiction titles come to mind, too: One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus, Molokai by Alan Brennert, Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (tragic ending that’s actually based in truth). You keep coming back to the injustice of the situations.
Now that I think about it, all 3 that I named were based on real situations and historical — I wonder if that has something to do with it?
Shari, I can see how books based on real-life events would really stick with you. When the book is intense and disturbing and you know it’s at least partially TRUE, it makes the story even more powerful!