Close readings of fake novels (part 1)

There are certain modern texts to consider before the naïve author attempts to carve out of her/his short lifespan that primitive creature known as “the first novel.” As books reviews are shaven down in newspapers to three paragraphs and a parenthesis, and talk shows reserve their author interview spots for memoirists, historians, political junkies, former junkies and make-believe politicians, the history of the contemporary novel has not only gone underground but evolved rapidly. They say if a group of animals are separated on an island from their predators on the mainland, they then speciate widely and freely according to this new environment. With that in mind the American novel has struck ahead in its invisible corner for the last two decades with only minimal notice from a dozen websites which themselves have populated in the air like pollen invisible to the human eye (re: average American consumer), far from Google or Yahoo. Certain reasons for this mess: bad marketing and publicity on one hand, and the small press market which lack the colossal arms of the larger publishing groups. That, and the slow destruction of any business model for marketing books towards the general population.
But putting that behind us it’s up to the critic, or the first time novelist, to search out these lost books from across the country. Several interesting books have already surfaced. One book, Finding the Lost, was a heist fest where the goal is the original plates of the Gutenberg Bible, where the author wrote a consistent 350 page novel without a single pronoun.......