Reaching for the Stars

Clearly, some of the book critics at the Chicago Tribune have a broad viewpoint on what does and doesn’t qualify as crime and/or mystery fiction. Even I wouldn’t go so far, for instance, as to claim T.C. Boyle’s Talk Talk for this genre.

Now, on the one hand, expanding the definition of what fits into this category is a good thing: It means recognizing that the labels publishers and bookstores put on novels these days are often not appropriate, and are as much driven by advertising and fear of “genre-fication” as by reality. But on the other, the inclusiveness that the Tribune, for one, demonstrates could be seen as a slap in the face, suggesting that nothing which is traditionally classifiable as crime fiction really measures up to critical tastes, and only by including books that qualify under the broadest possible definition can a list of commendable works even be compiled.

The Tribune seems unready, though, to fight this definition battle. Rather than using a classic “crime fiction” or “mystery” heading in its Best Books of 2006 list, it opts instead for the more vague “Mysterious Ways,” under which it lists five titles:

• The Boy Detective Fails, by Joe Meno (Punk Planet/Akashic)
• Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl (Viking)
• Forgetfulness, by Ward Just (Houghton Mifflin)
• Talk Talk, by T.C. Boyle (Viking)
• The Brief History of the Dead, by Kevin Brockmeier (Pantheon)

You can look over (and judge) the newspaper’s complete list of “bests” here.

READ MORE: Kate Atkinson, Ian Rankin, and William McIlvanney are all included in The Scotsman’s assessment of great reads from 2006; Ray Banks’ Best of 2006.