Crime Fiction Doesn't Get Any Respect

New York Times Book Review editor Sam Tanenhaus conducted a survey asking several hundred writers, critics, editors, and “other literary sages” which book they consider to be the “single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years.” The results appear in today’s paper. The book voted most influential (i.e., received the most votes) was Toni Morrison’s Beloved. It’s an outstanding work and clearly influential--though I actually preferred The Bluest Eye. The runners-up include several books by Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, and Philip Roth, as well as books by Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, etc.

I’ve read Beloved and almost all of DeLillo’s works (a great writer who has influenced James Ellroy), as well many of the books on the runners-up list. The literary figures asked to vote are all estimable, and many are some of my all-time favorite writers--such as John Irving (who should have been on the runners-up list himself, certainly, for The World According to Garp or A Prayer for Owen Meany). No one can seriously argue that the selections on this list are not great books. Morrison is flat-out brilliant. And of course, things of this nature are subjective and fluid.

Still … still … Not one crime-fiction book on the runners-up list? Take a look at the Times Best Sellers list for this week. Do you see all the crime fiction/mystery/thriller (pick your camp) books on that rundown? Take this list and back-date it for the past 25 years, and you know what won’t change? The number of crime fiction/mystery/thriller books that the American public has been reading in large numbers and enjoying. Books that have been influencing the American culture. I’m not saying that numbers alone translate to greatness. I’m saying that preference should be considered in selecting those asked to vote. There should have been a greater selection (any selection) of those in the mystery/thriller community.

How can you not have Ed McBain, or Robert B. Parker, or Elmore Leonard, or Sue Grafton, or Michael Connelly, or Robert Crais, or Walter Mosley, or James Lee Burke (Are you kidding me? No Jim Burke?), or George Pelecanos, or even Dennis Lehane (for Mystic River) on the runners-up list, at least? These writers are my subjective choices off the top of my head, and my apologies for the obvious other numerous talented writers I am failing to mention. Oh--no Donald Westlake? Come on, New York Times! Crime fiction has produced, serious, influencing works of fiction not only in the past 25 years, but going back decades. Give us our due. The American public already has.

READ MORE: “Why Is Beloved Beloved?” by Stephen Metcalf (Slate); “In Search of the Best,” by A.O. Scott (The New York Times); “Debating the New ‘Best American Fiction’ List,” by Meghan O’Rourke (Slate).