"A detective story can give a much truer picture of the society in which it's written than a more prestigious literature," James suggests. "If we want to know what it was like – actually like – to work in an office between the wars, we should go to Murder Must Advertise. It's all there: the people and personalities; the inter-departmental rivalry; the great excitement of having a flutter on the Grand National; right down to how much things cost and attitudes to sex and class. I wanted my books to do the same; to be unambiguously set in the present day, so that they give a picture of the life we're living. And if I'm lucky enough to be read in 50 years' time, I hope people will be able to point to them and say: that's what it was like." -- P.D. James in The Guardian, 2011
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Mysteries, and legal procedurals, get a bad rap. Law and Order is a guilty pleasure, while Breaking Bad is prestige TV. Sherlock Holmes is trivial, but Madame Bovary is not. Here, as in all other facets of life, we insist upon creating a hierarchy.
I recently finished reading yet another novel by P.D. James (this time it was Innocent Blood), and realized anew how contrived the distinction between high-brow and low-brow literature really is. James, who died in 2014, was England's greatest mystery writer of the 20th century. Ironically given that I am now extolling the value of her mysteries, Innocent Blood is not a mystery in the usual sense. We know who the villain is very early in the novel, and the suspense concerns if and how they will be caught. From this scaffolding an engrossing story unfolds. No spoilers -- go read it.
As the story unspools James deftly describes the UK's class dynamics and subtly skewers self-indulgent academics. You really do feel that you know more about London society circa 1978 (the year the novel takes place). This was exactly her goal, per the Guardian interview, and she succeeds fully in every respect.
Sure -- with writing like this you know that everything will be all tidied up by the end. A work of "prestige literature" is more apt to leave things hanging and unresolved, and in that sense it is much closer to real life. But sometimes it's nice to have all the t's crossed and i's dotted. P.D. James will do that for you, and provide a rich and full understanding of the world along the way.
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