In the first part, Bit is just five years old. The novel is written in four parts (without chapters) corresponding to different timeframes and covers the full sweep from utopia to a near-future dystopia.
The vehicle is the life of Ridley Sorrel Stone, known as ‘Bit’, the first baby born in Arcadia, through whose very close third person narrative all events are related. Most importantly, the confidence and distinctive style of Groff’s prose is equally evident in both.Īrcadia tells the story of a commune in western New York state from its earliest days in the 1970s, when a group of idealists set out to transform a dilapidated mansion and live in harmony with nature. Arcadia is much more reflective, not without humour, with a tone suited to a novel examining dreams and ideals and the way they clash with reality – big, serious themes. She’s still only 33.īoth novels are ambitious but surprisingly different in Arcadia, I missed the lightness of The Monsters of Templeton which was often (not always) very funny. Arcadia, which is one of my Fiction Hot Picks for 2012 is her second novel and her debut The Monsters of Templeton (2008) reached the New York Times bestseller list. Sometimes you just know it when you see it, and I don’t think there could ever have been any debate about where Lauren Groff’s writing belongs.
One criterion common to the various definitions of literary fiction is that the writing itself, the use of language, the choice of words, is paramount. I’ve read many novels designated literary and not understood what distinguishes them from really well-written commercial fiction (now sometimes referred to as upmarket commercial). The question of what literary fiction is, or isn’t, is one that both frustrates and fascinates me.
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