Truth in Labeling?

Genre labeling seems to have a number of authorities shaking their heads these days. Chicago Tribune critic Dick Adler addressed the indistinct border between “mysteries” and “thrillers” in a recent Rap Sheet post. In her own blog, author/editor Linda L. Richards pointed out the virtues of genre categorization, adding that “whatever genre assignment we choose to give a book will not alter what’s between the covers.” And today, Marshal Zeringue chimes in at his Campaign for the American Reader blog. He remarks, in part:

The easiest category is usually “literary fiction.” Updike, Roth, Ian McEwan, Joyce Carol Oates, et al. belong to that club.

But what to do about a novel like Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories or Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River? These books have mystery or crime plots yet, with their exceptional literary achievement, they defy classification in the conventional mystery or thriller categories.

And do we call John le Carré’s A Perfect Spy, perhaps the best book published in 1986 in any category, (merely) a spy novel?

The fact is, though, that discerning readers can sniff out excellent writing, no matter in which genre publishers and booksellers choose to place it. Nowadays, it’s only the narrow-minded or fearful reader who isn’t jumping all over the stacks, ignoring category labels in order to satisfy his or her literary needs.