A tour of the genresGone with the Wind. Others following on the heels of that best-seller
were Susan Hill's Mrs. de Winter, a sequel to Daphne Du Maurier's
timeless Rebecca, and two separate sequels to lane Austen's Pride and
Prejudice. Since then dozens of sequels have been done, few with any
big success.
Generation X Novels. These began, appropriately enough, with a
novel called Generation X by Douglas Coupland, author also of
Shampoo Planet. If the Gen-X novels bear a faint resemblance to such
eighties stories of dissolute youth as Bright Lights, Big City and Less
Than Zero or to the even older rebel classic Catcher in the Rye, it should
not be surprising. Every generation feels itself alienated from the
generation gone before, and thinks it is the first to feel that way.
Authors who can capture that fleeting moment of tragic ennui,
empty rage, and passionless longing will, with luck, be able to catch
the once-a-decade wave—maybe.
Transgressive Fiction. The fiction of sexual frontiers and extreme life-
styles is often associated with authors like the Marquis de Sade,
William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, and Henry Miller, but their
work is somewhat tame compared to the harrowing stuff of Jeff
Noon, Dennis Cooper, Kathy Acker, Will Self, Jack Womack, and
Steve Weiner. Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho is often touted as
the top of the category, but for a more authentic walk on the wild
side try Noon's Vurt, Cooper's Try, or Weiner's Museum of Love, a novel
deemed so dangerous that, in spite of its good reviews, no publish-
er was willing to do a paperback reprint of the Overlook Press edi-
tion. With content so upsetting, it is hard to see how this trend can
sustain itself for long.
Pseudomysticism. This trend is led by the best-seller The Celestine
Prophecy, but is perhaps better represented by Mario Morgan's
Mutant Message Down Under and Frederick Lenz's Surfing the Himalayas.
Spiritual quest and discovery of the wisdom of the ancients (or the
healing powers of primitive cultures) are the subjects of this fiction.
Reflective of our fin de siecle times, this trend will probably last only
a few more years.
Perhaps you have spotted some trends, too. If you have, con-
gratulations. You have observed a rare species on its way to
extinction.