Filing papers and stuff today and finding a bunch of reviews for my novel, 'Could it be Magic?' in 1998. All of these reviewers saying - all very well, but from now on he must stop writing about working class people! He must stop writing about the north! He has to stop writing about people on council estates! He has to mature past writing about where he came from! Who cares about New Towns in the North East anyway? He doesn't need to put in fantasy stuff and magical realism! He could be quite a good realist if he tried, being so gritty and working class! And why can't he write about posh queers if he has to write about queers? He needs to stop putting jokes in and start being more serious and things! Quite funny, looking back on all this from those broadsheets. They all seemed to know what I should have done next in order to, as they say, *mature* as a novelist... maybe i should have done what they said...?
Was that off-putting or encouraging? I'm very glad you didn't morph into Alan Hollinghurst as per their suggestions...
ReplyDeleteAh, it seems they wanted you to remove all vestiges of your personality and experience from your writing to become a 'proper novelist' I must say I wouldn't have bought any of your books if you had done this!
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