TV is filling the gap great novels can’t quite bridge

THIS weekend there will be loads of people dawdling around Dublin wearing straw boaters and eating kidneys and having a jolly fine time celebrating Ulysses.

For a novel which by any definition is tricky to read — and which most Irish people will never attempt — this is a remarkable achievement. For the literary purist, this is evidence of the mammoth influence Joyce’s book wields to this day; for those of a more cynical bent, it just shows how, with the proper marketing, pretty much anything can be turned into a tourist attraction.

World book sales are still healthy, yet there is a sense among many writers that the novel isn’t as culturally relevant as it once was. The American author Jonathan Franzen once penned an essay entitled ‘Why Bother?’ which sadly admitted that, apart from Harry Potter novels, there are few works of fiction that excite the public as they once did; and virtually none which hold up a mirror to the society in which they are created. Twentieth century writers would dream of producing the great American/British/Irish novel. Now they don’t even try, feeling that there are far too many other instant sources of media doing the same thing.