Salon.com > Jeff Martin http://www.salon.com Wed, 22 May 2013 21:30:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Modern Steinbecks emerge to chronicle tough times http://www.salon.com/2011/08/30/the_new_realists/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/30/the_new_realists/#comments Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:31:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/books/2011/08/30/the_new_realists Bill Maher once suggested that while he didn't advocate the use of heroin, it certainly didn't hurt his record collection. The same sentiment applies to American literary fiction in tough economic times. While no one would ever wish for high unemployment or a schizophrenic stock market, it's always brought out the best in our writers.

Since the beginning of this "Great Recession," a scattered collection of fresh new voices have emerged -- call them the socioeconomic realists. The most prominent might be Bonnie Jo Campbell, whose searing "American Salvage" was a finalist for the both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2009. Campbell's first two books, while equally gritty as hell, never caught on; she didn't change, the world did. ("American Salvage" was published by a university press; her latest novel, "Once Upon a River," was published last month by W.W. Norton.)

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