Theory of the Novel

“Virginia Woolf once said that novelists write not in sentences but in chapters. Novelistic form is, in some ways, the achievement of this deep, patient rhythm. Much contemporary fiction, like much contemporary life, has a restless flamboyance that preëmpts such wise shapeliness. In this regard, & Sons seems a contemporary novelistic document, in which cleverness too often substitutes for feeling, and ‘style’ presents itself for continual applause, each page offering bright and punctual plumes.”

James Wood in the New Yorker