Maybe my subconscious is just VERY slow to act, but this morning I awoke remembering a popular BOOK which was effectively devoid of conflict. I just spent almost an hour trying & failing to locate it via Google. Maybe someone else will be successful.
It appeared on the NYTimes top-sellers list for several weeks a few years ago. I thought it was titled The Road Trip, because critics likened it to Kerouac's On the Road, and to Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It detailed the events during a drive from New York to LA, with various stops along the way. It was almost a travelogue. It was also a character study of the four travelers. The main driver (and car owner) was the main POV character, but the POV sometimes shifted to one of the others.
Where there is conflict it's pretty insignificant: which restaurant or motel to stop at, staying longer or shorter at various places, and so on. Each character has an arc, with the MC having an epiphany that changes her life, as does one other. The others don't but do have slowly evolving character arcs.
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Thinking back over the book the takeaway I got is that there are three elements to every story: PEOPLE, PLACES, ACTIVITIES. I'm perfectly happy if only one of them is the main or biggest element. It's a bonus to me if the activities are connected to form a plot, but not necessary. My tastes are eclectic; a meandering disconnected story can satisfy me if the events are well-written and interesting by themselves.
Conflict itself doesn't interest me, especially if I get a hint that it's layered in like headline clickbait or gratuitous sex to entice me to buy a book.
It seems to me that no/low conflict novels are often of two types. One is heavy on setting, little more than touristy wanderings or vacations. These are about discovering quirky, funny, or fascinating out-of-the way places. Often they are about the cultures of the places, the food and customs and odd people who live in the setting. They are fiction versions of books like A Year in Provence or Under the Tuscan Sun.
Another kind of no/low conflict novels are character-heavy novels.
High-conflict novels in my experience are more likely to be plot-heavy. They may have a positive goal such as a treasure the main character(s) seeks. Or a negative one such as escaping from a danger. The main character(s) face many obstacles along the way to their goal, each generating conflict. The books may also be setting-heavy or character-heavy but fans of plot-heavy books would be less upset about their lack than lack of a solid plot.
Plot-heavy books tend to be one of the genres. Setting-heavy and character-heavy books tend to be mainstream or literary books. But these are only tendencies.
Getting back to Driver; she's seems to be a successful agent with more than a quarter century of experience. She specializes in "fantasy, science fiction, romance, romantica, suspense and young adult" according to her agency's web page. All of those typically are plot-heavy genres. She is also an author of several books. Thus her advice is probably gold for anyone who seeks to work in those areas.
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