Here's a subgenre of crime novels that caught our attention yesterday, the postmodern mystery. Paul Gioia — whose website bears the same name … and for all we know, coined the term — has recently published the eight memes of the postmodern mystery and asked us to take a look. We did, and it's a fascinating overview of subgenre, books that "possess a paradoxical beauty, both celebrating and undermining the precepts of crime fiction." He suggests that readers use his handy guide to search for tell-tale signs that a mystery may be postmodern … and then take all necessary precautions!
To help readers get started, Gioia lists 50 books that he believes best represent the postmodern mystery, each accompanied by a detailed analysis of how and why they fit into the subgenre. Although we've only read a couple of the books listed, we found ourselves making a checklist of several more that piqued our interest.
PostmodernMystery.com is an engaging website for mystery fans, but be forewarned: plan on allotting plenty of time to peruse all that's there.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The Postmodern Mystery
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