Sadly, this is usually coupled with a negative, cynical view of the nature of man that can leave a reader feeling hopeless. As Jane Smiley noted, “One of the particular vocations of the novel from the beginning has been the portrayal of brutes, criminals and psychopaths.” ( 13 Ways of Looking at a Novel, 115) And with the passage of time, it seems that the graphic depiction of evil has become the main focus of modern fiction.
Well, does it? Certainly sin, infidelity, murder and mayhem are at the heart of most narrative fiction.
The idea seems to be that unhappy people are somehow more interesting, and that evil and its consequences, with all the attendant drama, makes a better story than goodness. “Happy families are all alike every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Leo Tolstoy wrote this famous first line and Anna Karenina’s miserable downward spiral exemplifies it, but is this oft-quoted statement really true? The underlying premise of the assertion – that happy, good people are somehow less “unique” than unhappy, sinful people – is troubling on several levels.
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