u/Worth_Cherry2546

So in an effort to read more indie press not just Big 5 publisher stuff, I subscribe to a youtube channel that goes over new releases of just small/indie press releases. Something in her description of a novel called ALL TRAP NO BAIT by Joseph Worthen interested me--I don't remember what anymore, the back blurbs say variously "a Southern Gothic novel for the cyber age" "the bastard love child of Flannery O'Connor and The Big Lebowski" and "reads like Bolano in Alabama [its dark but not remotely 2666 dark, imho]" so probably something like that. But first I read an excerpt of the author's writing online, as ofc the prose will tell me more than anything else, then I was like lets do this, ordered, and, reader, it far surpassed my expectations. I loved it. It was a romp and a half.

It has a kind of mystery bit (an "internet demon" is harassing our protag, Bev) that made it so I was just excitedly turning pages like reading when you're a kid, a hyper rare phenomenon for me, but that is not even what makes it great. There are so many funny as fuck or heartbreaking lines, penetrating what it means to be alive right now, especially in the South and especially if you're poor. It has a lot of what rsbookclub seems to be looking for: an internet novel, but in a seamless way, not a torturously smug way (sorry, Lockwood), a WORKING CLASS novel (maybe the most exciting part, just spot on in a way I have not seen in fiction), a Gen Z/millennial novel but not in a stupid way, and a de-slumping novel if you are in a reading slump.

You might say the protagonist, perpetually down-on-her-luck Bev, is another variation on the drug-addled alienated young women that have proliferated contemporary fiction since MYORR, but to me, as much as I can occasionally kick it with Moshfegh, Bev (and the novel) has a lot more heart, more idiosyncrasy. And of course, she is poor as fuck, which changes everything.

The whole time I was reading, a part of my brain was like "why the HELL isn't this a big 5 novel?? with the author receiving a fat advance?" In the same way Vuong (insert "stop, stop, he's already dead" gif) is proof that mainstream lit fic publishers are without taste or discernment, the sheer fact that ALL TRAP NO BAIT evidently couldn't get published at one of the Big 5 publishers shows how broken the whole stupid system is. Although it is also possible that being indie-published was a purposeful choice; parts of the novel do suggest that ethos. I hadn't heard of Tortoise Books before but they seem pretty interesting and have a mission to publish "writers who haven't found a niche in the marketplace [...but] will stand the test of time."

Still, if there was any justice in publishing (there is not) this would have Lost Lambs-like rollout. I'm not saying it is a perfect book, I do have some minor quibbles, but considering most contemporary lit fic leaves me annoyed, bored, or cold, this was pretty fucking great. Which is why I decided to write up this whole thing.

I don't think I'm wrong when I say that there seems to be a longstanding general disgruntlement with contemporary American literary fiction on here. The specific criticisms may vary, from a boring minimalism, the "wan little husks" of autofiction and similar, a sort of obviousness, a screenplay quality, fixation on the same well-trod themes that confirm rather than challenge, an absence of linguistic density or play, the dumbed down YA-ification of everything. There are probably more. But what I'm more interested in... What do you want to see that you're not getting from (especially Big 5) American litfic? Be as specific or general as possible, I am quite curious!

For myself, I want more dense prose, less predictable "I'm showing, not telling!" style writing where you can feel the MFA professor's breath on the page, more fun and wild sentences, BIG ambitious themes like God and Existence and Death, narrators that are whatever the opposite of stylish apathy is (love you Ottessa but), and and and... just something that feels totally different and original. Everything is so same-y sometimes it makes me want to throw the book across the room.

Currently, for the most part, I go to past literature to get my fix, or sometimes foreign literature. I know there are indie presses doing interesting things and I need to read more of them, but sometimes I find the same issue there. It can't be that all American litfic writers are so staid and predictable... I truly think they must be out there, but maybe not getting published...?

Okay, so what do YOU want from litfic that you haven't come across?

We've obv discussed Madeline Cash's "Lost Lambs," mostly fairly critically, and speculated on the Thiel connections. But now I have to defend the Gap-sponsored authoress as she is in the cultural cross-hairs in a way that I think represents the ridiculous way many general readers now approach literature. She is being called "Islamophobic" (in fact, an overwhelming number of comments on her Dua Lipa interview were to this effect) as readers have decided that the mere presence of a (obviously satirical) character that is an Islamic terrorist means her writing is Islamophobic.

These readers apparently want their books to have a balancing GOOD Muslim character for every bad one and to telegraph clearly to the reader by the end the proper political viewpoints they already hold. There is apparently no appreciation for what is the obviously satirical purpose of the character (that the middle daughter is so neglected that no one notices she has become swept up in an online jihadist romance is like, funny) nor an appreciation for ambiguity or absurdism. They've decided Cash is BAD.

I don't expect purity from my authors (Nabokov championed the Vietnam War for heaven's sake) nor do I want only moral and evenly represented characters. It is all so terrifically dumb, and boring, and a weird yet evidently quite mainstream way to engage with literature... Thoughts?