What would you like to see in Mainstream/Contemporary/Literary?

Good writing.

gothicangel said:

More psychological thrillers with a literary twist.

It's getting really hard to find these books!

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I know this is an ancient post but I'm just glad to see this statement because this is exactly what I'm writing

I'd like to see more weirdness, like a fantasy crossover kind of thing. I'd also love it if more contemporary novels had a gothic tinge to them.

I find it confusing to have Literary conjoined with Mainstream and Contemporary.

More stories that remain with me long after I've finished reading them.

Seems like the distance between commercial and literary fiction is greater than ever. The first follows formulas, and the second toys with the reader in order to appear 'edgy' (but often comes across as pointlessly obfuscatory).

Or am I imagining that, and this commercial/literary gap always great?

I wonder if the dire state of commercial publishing, the economics of the big publishing houses, have caused mainstream publishers to take fewer chances with literary fiction that might have some (though not great) commercial appeal.

That's what's happened in the music industry -- a small number of extremely lucrative (and packaged performers), followed by a lot of struggling indie bands.

Slightly off-topic, though it certainly pertains to the thread...

What are some of these books that are rife with unnecessary magical realism? I read a fair amount of literary fiction, but not many have entered my orbit.

Haruki Murakami has some pretty good literary fiction with magical realism thrown in. I don't know that I'd call it "unnecessary;" it's just what he does. It's his style. Worth reading. Good stuff.