Robert Boswell: Writing the Political Novel: The Responsibilities of the Writer in an Inconvenient Time (January 1996)

What makes a good political novel? Is it possible for a work of fiction to make a difference in the complex contemporary world? Noting that many writers resist overtly political writing, Robert Boswell examines and opposes that resistance, believing that writers keep the possibility of change alive when they engage with the political. Drawing on work by Melville, Roth, Wolfe, Updike, Styron, Kingsolver, and others, Boswell offers strategies for writing political novels that retain their integrity as literary fiction.