The Novel, Who Needs It? by Joseph Epstein

As an essayist, I find the writings of Joseph Epstein appealing. I don't always agree with him, but what he says, and how he says it, can be quite engaging. The Novel, Who Needs It? is a longish essay, or a shortish book. In eighteen meandering sections--some very short, some very long--Epstein argues the novel is "the supreme literary genre." There is much wisdom sprinkled throughout the book, but his succinct conclusion is worth noting:  "Without the help of the novel we lose the hope of gaining a wider and . . . more complex view of life, its mysteries, its meaning, its point. . . . The novel at its best . . . seeks to discover deeper truths, the truth of the imagination, the truth of human nature, the truth of the heart." In answer to the question posed in the book's title, Epstein notes that we all need the novel ("even people who wouldn't think of reading novels"), and in this "great age of distraction we may just need it more than ever before."