Novels that Matter
When I go to my desk to start writing early in morning, my wife often says to me, “Are you going to go change the world?” It feels like a joke sometimes, but it’s not a joke. It’s actually quite serious. It’s her little reminder to me that what I’m doing is important.
I do believe that novels have the power to change the world.
A couple of examples will suffice. Look at the way “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1852) and “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1960) fundamentally changed race relations in this country. Each book had the effect of opening the eyes of wide subsets of white readers toward the real experiences of African Americans and arguably helped lay the groundwork for the huge social and political changes in the decade following each book’s release.
The reason a novel can be so powerful is that when you, as a reader, are immersed in a story, you emotionally experience what the characters are experiencing. A good story really puts you into the head and heart of a character, sometimes one very different from yourself. You feel with the character and this in turn begins to create new levels of understanding and empathy.
Artists Lead the Way
We live in a time and in a country where constructive dialogue about the hard issues of our time is nearly impossible. Our political institutions are toxic and both sides share the blame. People tend to cluster around those with whom they agree, often via online communities such as Facebook. Assumptions are so strong that many people don’t even want to associate with those on the other side of this or that issue. Thus, the most thoughtful and respectful arguments for positive change, whether in the political or social arena, fall on deaf ears.
In this type of environment, throughout history, it is the artists who can make the breakthrough, when politicians, academics and philosophers have failed. Art, and specifically in this context–story–has the power to reach the heart in a unique way.
There were many politicians and academics in the 1850s who decried the injustice of slavery. But it was Hariet Beecher Stowe’s novel that changed the hearts, helping to tip the balance toward Abolitionism.
A Novel about Immigration
One of the more divisive issues of our time is immigration. Too often, the human side of the issue is forgotten. Again it will be the artists, including writers, who will put a human face on things, and hopefully begin to change hearts.
My new novel, The Exile, is about a Latin American woman who is deported, wrenched away from her family. It is a love story and a family story that tugs at the heart.
I would never presume to expect such an impact from my humble work as great authors such as Stowe and Lee have achieved. What I take from their legacy is a belief that books should matter. A novel must first and foremost be enjoyable to read. It has the opportunity to be so much more.
I hope you enjoy The Exile–that it sweeps you away into the the world of its characters–and in so doing, touches your heart in a new way. I further hope there are many more writers working on novels about what’s happening to immigrants in America, to collectively start to broaden our perspective, showing the human side in all its complexity. To this total I offer my book as a humble contribution. Each of these writers are trying, in their own small way, to change the hearts of our time.