One of the questions from writers that annoys me most is how ‘long’ things are – most especially “How long’s a novel?” – as if there’s a right answer. [These days there are very few ‘right’ answers in writing…]
Take Max Porter’s novel Shy. It’s published as a novel, and you will find it on the fiction shelves. Yet it has, what?, perhaps 30,000 words maximum… Many would say that wasn’t a novel.
The way the words are laid out on the page bulk it out; there is a lot of white space. Make the layout conventional and it would be perhaps 70 pages at best. Does that suddenly not make it a novel?
The layout and use of font is intrinsic to the book. It is a visceral, multi-tongued work, filled with tension and passion. Porter’s book is clever, perceptive; it gets inside the mind of Shy – and the way it is laid out helps us on that journey.
Disturbing, troubling, insightful. If you want something different, try Shy.
Ian Gouge - Writer 