Genre question (Gregory McGuire

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Layla Nahar

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Hello

I've read a couple of things by Gregory McGuire , and I wondered, why is he stocked in 'literary' or at least general fiction, & not fantasy?
 

farfromfearless

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I think he's one of those authors that fall in the precarious grey-area of categorization. Frank L. Baum's work was defined well enough to be in the literary fiction section of a bookstore, but Gregory Maguire's work, though link to Baum's takes place entirely in fantasy worlds - with the exception of the fairy tale variants... which again falls into that grey-area of categorization.

I loved "Wicked" - but I find the majority of his work depressing. He sets you up for a potential happy ending, but like the brother's grimm, delivers the opposite. I like it, but I have to be in the mood for it.
 

maestrowork

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I think the SF/Fantasy section is for genres. McGuire's books are not generally considered genre fantasy. By the way, it's not "literary" section -- at least not at my local BN. It's "literature."
 

Toothpaste

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Possibly he is placed in the literary section because his stuff is a little like a literary experiment? While being fantasy, the books are more about playing with our perceptions, and our understandings of some very popular stories.

I don't know really. Just offering up a hypothesis.
 

weatherfield

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Other people might have different opinions on this, but I'd say that Maquire is a case where actual prose style has a great deal to do with the categorization as "literary."
 
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