Americans Prefer “McNovels”?

If you’re an American, would you be inclined to buy, or even to read, books written by someone with this attitude:

But Americans also tend to look for the quick, digestible McNovel: the one with the happy ending, the one with chapters you can read in one bathroom break, the one you’ve forgotten by the time you turn the last page.

I’ve thought long and hard before posting about this issue. The quotation is from Jodi Picoult: Going Global. The subject is one my book club members mutter about almost every month. “It was a fast read!” one reports gladly. “There was nothing to it!” another complains. Then I explain, “Now, this is a commercial novel and the one we read last time is what I mean by ‘literary’.”

Picoult has the luxury of pandering to her own interests and choosing her readers, such as the Australians, whom she praises with “… readers in Australia prefer a certain kind of book: one that’s meaty, raises discussion and makes them think. In other words, a book like mine.” Really? Do all Australians and [insert almost any nationality except her own] read high literature? None like “a summer read” or just something trashy to pass time and provide some harmless pleasure? Maybe the readers of Picoult’s books want weighty matters, unresolved, vague and controversial, but that doesn’t mean all readers must feel the same, nor all writers choose the same subjects and style. Why the indictment?