The novel dividing the season: the critics split, the readers did not

The novel has gone to five printings in two months. On the review pages one camp calls it the book of the year; the other finds the same text too carefully engineered.

The author is staying out of it. Her only comment concerns the seven years the book took and the fact that it was not planned this way.

For anyone who knows the earlier work this turn is not a surprise. What surprises is how late the attention arrived.

What the book is about

Ticket sales are moving regardless of the row. In live performance those two things usually pull in the same direction.

The institution’s statement is short and carefully written. Between the lines you can read the effort not to feed the story.

Where the argument sits

Someone in the room and someone watching a screen are not seeing the same work. That difference explains most of the argument on its own.

The sales figures look to have settled the question already. Where the novel really belongs will be decided by readers a few years from now.