Why are there not more Catholic novels?
When I go to Protestant/Evangelical bookstores, I find row after row of Christian fiction, in a variety of genres: romance, horror, historical, adventure, on and on.
When I go to a Catholic bookstore I find only about 4 feet of space on one shelf with a few Catholic novels.
I know that Ignatius Press publishes and sells a few Catholic novels. But I've never found a really good Catholic novel. I've read a few, but have found none to recommend to anyone.
Why isn't there any novel out there that is an orthodox Catholic novel that, like "The Shack," aims to lead people to be closer to God and to the People of God?
Partly, I think it is because secular liberal publishing bigwigs are so hostile to orthodox Catholicism. But partly too I think it is because there is little to no "market" for such books. For some reason, Catholics don't read Catholic novels. Why?
By the way, I see all the web pages that recommend authors such as Graham Greene, Flannery O'Connor, J.R.R. Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton, and Walker Percy.
First, those authors have all been dead for decades. Second, I've looked at some of their books, and read a few pages, and read summaries of the books, and found them all really unappealing. But the worse thing is how old the books are. These authors were all writing in a very different time. I think we need Catholic novelists who can write and speak about the conditions today, to the people living today.
There are the novels of Fr. Andrew Greeley. But I don't think he's written a new one in several years. Plus, Fr. Greeley seems to have been obsessed with sex, and seems to have been somewhat of a left-wing dissenter. Hate to be critical, so if I am wrong about Fr. Greeley, forgive me Lord, and forgive me Fr. Greeley. I did read one of his novels, and it was written well enough. It was a sort of mystery-suspense-adventure-romance novel centered on a handsome young man and beautiful young woman, with a priest as a sort of side character who was a friend to the couple. But, I really didn't see that Greeley novel as a Catholic novel. It was just a typical paperback potboiler.
Lord knows the secularists and atheists have plenty of living novelists promoting their world view. Just look at "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel, who subtly argues in that book that all religions are the same and all religions are the same as fiction stories. Then there the Mormon woman, Stephenie Meyer, who wrote those violent vampire love story novels ("Twilight" series). And everyone has gone wild over those "Hunger Games" novels just as they did over the "Harry Potter" novels.
Why aren't there any living Catholic novelists who are on par with J.K. Rowling or Stephen King or Jonathan Franzen or Cormac McCarthy?
When I go to Protestant/Evangelical bookstores, I find row after row of Christian fiction, in a variety of genres: romance, horror, historical, adventure, on and on.
When I go to a Catholic bookstore I find only about 4 feet of space on one shelf with a few Catholic novels.
I know that Ignatius Press publishes and sells a few Catholic novels. But I've never found a really good Catholic novel. I've read a few, but have found none to recommend to anyone.
Why isn't there any novel out there that is an orthodox Catholic novel that, like "The Shack," aims to lead people to be closer to God and to the People of God?
Partly, I think it is because secular liberal publishing bigwigs are so hostile to orthodox Catholicism. But partly too I think it is because there is little to no "market" for such books. For some reason, Catholics don't read Catholic novels. Why?
By the way, I see all the web pages that recommend authors such as Graham Greene, Flannery O'Connor, J.R.R. Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton, and Walker Percy.
First, those authors have all been dead for decades. Second, I've looked at some of their books, and read a few pages, and read summaries of the books, and found them all really unappealing. But the worse thing is how old the books are. These authors were all writing in a very different time. I think we need Catholic novelists who can write and speak about the conditions today, to the people living today.
There are the novels of Fr. Andrew Greeley. But I don't think he's written a new one in several years. Plus, Fr. Greeley seems to have been obsessed with sex, and seems to have been somewhat of a left-wing dissenter. Hate to be critical, so if I am wrong about Fr. Greeley, forgive me Lord, and forgive me Fr. Greeley. I did read one of his novels, and it was written well enough. It was a sort of mystery-suspense-adventure-romance novel centered on a handsome young man and beautiful young woman, with a priest as a sort of side character who was a friend to the couple. But, I really didn't see that Greeley novel as a Catholic novel. It was just a typical paperback potboiler.
Lord knows the secularists and atheists have plenty of living novelists promoting their world view. Just look at "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel, who subtly argues in that book that all religions are the same and all religions are the same as fiction stories. Then there the Mormon woman, Stephenie Meyer, who wrote those violent vampire love story novels ("Twilight" series). And everyone has gone wild over those "Hunger Games" novels just as they did over the "Harry Potter" novels.
Why aren't there any living Catholic novelists who are on par with J.K. Rowling or Stephen King or Jonathan Franzen or Cormac McCarthy?