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Blogs by Gill James
Edginess in Young Adult Literature
5/5/2006 12:49:40 AM
In this very competitaive area, one has to be extraordinary in order to succeed.
Yesterday I spent some time on writing part of the critical piece for my PhD. I have concluded that the publishing industry is looking for something extraordinary in what they publish in this area. There are some books which have definitely made a splash – Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, for instance.
There are also some which made a splash though perhaps shouldn’t have – the Harry Potter books? From Goblet of Fire onwards? Rowling has been extraordinary in that she has got non-readers reading, and she appeals to so many. She is a somewhat the Enid Blyton of our times. We enjoy her works, but it’s actually a bit like eating junk food.
Compared with for instance, some, like McGann’s The Gods and Their Machines, which is so well written, and so cleverly portrays a different world without having to tell us about it. We are very close to Chamus, the main protagonist. He’s a solid young adult, and he has a really interesting experience. He is also a hero. And the book is really well written. Yet, it’s hardly known. Presumably books like these have not had the effective marketing that others have enjoyed.
Then there are some which ought to go well, because of the topics they deal with. Yet soemwho they fail. Hassenmüller’s Gute nacht Zuckepüppchen deals with sexual abuse and tells a presumably true story in a fictionalized way. It does disturb us, yet it does not grab us quite as much as the books mentioned above.
Then there’s the rest. They are less unusual. They conform to a pattern and do it well. They will contain something of the Bildungsroman, and they will deal with at least two teen issues and / or more global matters seen form an adolescent’s point of view. They will be written either in a sophisticated language which stretches the reader, or will concede to the reluctant reader. They will usually be cross-genre. They will almost always be fast-paced, entertaining and invite an emotional response.
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