What is good literature?

And how is it different from a good story?

I finished Wish You Well. I said it was cheesy - it was. It had a somewhat compelling story though. And I wanted to find out how it ended.

But it really wasn't well-written. I've read better stuff in Good Housekeeping - and not even their giant fiction issue. And the "willing suspension of disbelief" had to work overtime to make it work.

(Dad is killed in a car accident. Mom is in a coma - but she can eat and drink and doesn't seem to get bed sores. And Mom and kids go to Virginia to live in the Appalachian mountains with Great Grandma. And the evil gas company illicitly mines for natural gas on Granny's property. And "Diamond Skinner - a plucky young lad who lives on his own and is always there to rescue Lou and her little brother Oz - is blown up when he runs into the mine - not knowing about the illicit activities of Southern Virginia Gas and Power. And the evil neighbor - who put the gas company onto the mine on Granny's property - burns down their barn - in the dead of winter. And then Granny has a stroke - and the gas company goes to court to get her declared mentally incompetent so they can get her land - that she earlier refused to sell to them - and the evil neighbor is on the jury - and the jury finds in favor of Southern Virginia - and you guessed it - Mom rises up from her bed of affliction and walks into the courtroom.)

I'm telling you the plot because you don't need to bother to read it.

I don't think that's what Eliot had in mind when he explained the concept of "willing suspension."

At least it was easy to skim.

I want to read Home - is it as good as the Times review said it was?

The pile - on my nightstand - is actually shrinking!!

So I finished Atonement - and really loved it!! What a compelling - and well told story! I tried to skim but couldn't - the eloquent language and the turns of phrases were riveting:

"Cambridge had changed her fundamentally and she thought she was immune. No one in her family, however, noticed the transformation in her, and she was not able to resist the power of their habitual expectations." This is pretty profound - and to realize that it's a universal thought!! (Here I thought I was the only one who got sucked back into being my old self when I went back home each summer!)

And this one:

"Above all, she wanted to look as though she had not given the matter a moment's thought, and that would take time." Do we all identify with this thought??

And:

"...and he made himself think about time, about his great hoard, the luxury of an unspent fortune." Ah, youth!!

And finally:

"It was a chilly sensation, growing up." That's certainly one way of looking at it!

But I'm a little unclear on the end - I admit I was a bit groggy when I finally finished it - stayed up late to do so - and did Robbie and Cecilia both die? I couldn't quite follow her internal conversations about the various "drafts."

Someone fill me in!

I'm reading a David Baldacci novel called Wish You Well. It's a little "cheesy" but a good friend recommended it - and I want to at least have the story line down when she asks me about it.

I skimmed it but need more details to flesh it out.

So, what is everyone else reading??

What I'm Reading Now:

I came home early from school on Wednesday and our cleaning lady was here, so I had to find a little corner to stay out of the way in - and started reading Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh. It was terrible - I lasted for about 5 chapters and tossed it!

The same woman who had brought me that had brought me Pavilion of Women by Pearl Buck. So I started that - and I have had a hard time putting it down.

I've read about Pearl Buck before, but it's been since high school - I read a number of her books then. I may even have read Pavilion before - but I am really enjoying it.

Any of the rest of you - have you read her - what is your take? She definitely has an agenda. An intriguing one at that!