Chabon bemoans genre ghettos

  Michael Chabon (pronounced Shay-Bon) is one of our finest living fiction writers. He is best known for two novels, 1995's "The Wonder Boys," which was made into a pretty good movie starring Michael Douglas, and "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001.
  Both novels certainly fall into that vague category called literary fiction, but Chabon is not one to allow himself to be so easily pigeonholed. More recently, Chabon wrote a novel called "The Yiddish Policemen's Union," which falls more easily into the detective or mystery category (with an alternate history twist thrown in), and a novel called "Gentlemen of the Road," which is heroic fantasy in the spirit of Michael Moorcock (Elric of Melnibone), Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and Gray Mouser) and Robert E. Howard (Conan). In addition, Chabon has written a comic book series ("The Escapists") and a children's fantasy novel ("Summerland").
  Along the way, Chabon wrote a series of essays, the overarching theme of which is a challenge to the long-accepted ghetto-ization of genre fiction. These essays are collected in a new book, "Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands," published by McSweeney's Books.
  "Entertainment has a bad name," Chabon begins this compelling collection. He's right. Publishers and bookstore chains have conspired over the past century to divide writers into genres, thereby forcing readers to make false choices and authors to become specialists. It also has manufactured an unfair class system, with so-called literary fiction at the top and other genres piled up below. Chabon makes a compelling case for junking genres and focusing on what's good and, yes, entertaining, regardless of subject or style. He notes that two of the great writers of the 19th century, Charles Dickens and Henry James, wrote some great ghost stories. Nobody thought this was odd 150 years ago, but today it would be considered slumming for a literary writer and he would be encouraged to adopt a pseudonym.
  "Maps and Legends" is a thoughtful and entertaining trek through Chabon's reading and writing life. Chabon has conquered yet another genre: nonfiction.