HAVE BESTSELLERS BECOME DUMBER?
46 || June• 2018
including Stephen King, Danielle Steel
and Harlan Coben, rank at or below
the sixth-grade level.
It would be easy to lump in he New
York Times list’s reading-level decline
with the rise of knee-jerk argu ments
that intellect in the US is at an all-time
low, but I don’t think this is fair.
Writing doesn’t need to be com-
plicated to be considered powerful
or literary. The winner of the 2014
Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Gold-
inch, was also a bestseller and has a
in the 1980s, the Bourne books; and
in the 1990s, the Jurassic Park sequel,
he Lost World.
But if we break down bestsellers by
genre, we ind that there has been a
long-term shift within these guilty
pleasures. Thrillers have become
‘dumber’. Romance novels have be-
come ‘dumber’. There has been an
across-the-board ‘dumbification’
of popular fiction. Among current
authors who have written at least
five number one bestsellers, most,
AGATHA CHRISTIE
Her novels are direct
and unadorned, even
when the hero is a fussy
Belgian. Her language
couldn’t be simpler, but
her plots continue to
fool readers generation
after generation.
MURDER ON THE ORIENT
EXPRESS: “It was five
o’clock on a winter’s
morning in Syria.”
MICHAEL
CONNELLY
There’s nothing in the
pages of his crime
novels but simple,
get-going writing.
No froufrou, no
distractions, just the
facts, making him
perhaps the best
procedural writer in
the business. Ever.
THE BLACK ECHO:
“The boy couldn’t
see in the dark, but
he didn’t need to.”
JANET EVANOVICH
Her books are short,
sharp and funny. That’s
rare in any kind of
writing, and she’s
prolific in a variety of
genres.
ONE FOR THE MONEY:
“There are some men
who enter a woman’s
life and screw it up
forever.”
STEPHEN KING
It’s his ideas and
imagination that are
superior; his writing,
while uniquely his, pulls
readers from page one
with its accessibility.
THE DARK TOWER – THE
GUNSLINGER: “The man
in black fled across
SIMPLE AND SATISFYING
Reader’s Digest editors have rounded up some of their favourite
writers who keep it simple, along with first lines that let you sample
their less-is-more literary styles.