With all the real-life carnage in the world -- from the war in Afghanistan to the factory disaster in Bangladesh to the tornado in Oklahoma -- how painful is it to also read about fictional deaths in literature? Pretty painful, especially if we're fond of the characters whose lives end.

The Great Gatsby movie has opened and the comments sections of blog posts often contain threads, so it's a good time and place to discuss ... clothing in literature.

After all, the "threads" characters wear can signify wealth or poverty, and the rich people in the Gatsby film and novel...

When a key character in a novel is passive and/or modest, that spells trouble for the book -- right? Not necessarily.

A seemingly boring protagonist might have emotional and intellectual depth beyond what first meets a reader's eye. And we often feel empathy for a shy character, who usually has...

In literature, sometimes a car is just a car. But sometimes it's a "vehicle" for authors to write about independence, loneliness, progress, sex, death, wealth, poverty and more.

Whether or not book-based cars are weighted with symbolism, most of us certainly relate to driving. So I'd like to steer you...

LT can stand for Leo Tolstoy or Long Tomes, MP for Marcel Proust or Many Pages, and...well, you get the idea. This will be a piece about "doorstop novels."

Long works of fiction are on my mind because I've almost finished an edition of James Clavell's Shogun that contains 998...

With marriage equality in the news this year, it's worth noting that 2013 also marks the 40th anniversary of the pioneering novel Rubyfruit Jungle.

Rita Mae Brown's 1973 book was of course not the first to include lesbian and gay characters, whether closeted or open. But, at the time, it...

Spring is here, which means the start of the wedding season. So there's no better time to discuss literature that features... bad marriages!

But this will not be a totally negative post. Troubled fictional unions can serve as useful cautionary tales of mistakes real-life readers might avoid when looking to...

A gift of a book I have yet to read gave me the idea for this post.

How can that be? Well, the Silent House novel I received last month is by Orhan Pamuk of Turkey. The country that Nobel Prize winner is from reminded me that I and many...

Carnivorous and vegetarian readers alike are fond of "fish out of water" fiction. That's because there's often lots of drama and/or laughs when authors transport protagonists to a much different place.

Those characters may initially flounder and have humorously embarrassing moments -- which is not good for them but interesting...

One big reason why people read fiction is to feel strong emotions -- joy, surprise, anger, etc. And when it comes to anger, few literary experiences make our blood boil more than observing the actions of hypocritical protagonists.

These integrity-challenged characters are especially maddening when they become successful despite (or...

You know that dreaded nine-letter word describing certain novels. The word that makes literature students run screaming from classrooms and older readers tremble even when dressed warmly. Yes, the word is (gasp) "difficult!"

Some novels deserve to be called difficult, and I'll name a few of them in this post....

People who love both fiction and music might waffle Hamlet-like about whether to enjoy a book or some tunes in their free time. But there's a way to combine both!

I don't mean reading and listening to music at the same time, though you can do that if you don't...

Some sequels are better than the first novel, and some are worse. Why? The sequel to that question will consist of several answers in this post, along with examples of sequels that did or did not surpass the original book.

I thought about this topic after the recent release of...

How do you see a doctor without a long stay in the waiting room? Read about one in a work of literature!

A fictional M.D. will not reduce your fever, but she or he might reduce your boredom. That's because many medical protagonists -- whether general practitioners or something else...

Even if you couldn't afford to visit another country this holiday season, characters in literature have been crossing national borders for centuries.

It's certainly one of the more interesting things protagonists can do. By journeying to another nation, characters might find love, escape a romantic entanglement, satisfy wanderlust, reveal how...

As autumn ends, hat-covered minds might turn to literature with scenes of Christmas, cold and snow. To cite the title of an Ann Beattie book, we're talking Chilly Scenes of Winter here!

One author who immediately comes to mind is Jack London, given that several of his novels are set...

Authors can be placed in one of two groups. Alive or dead? Sure. Female or male? Yup. But the two groups I'm thinking of are authors who wrote a great novel that far outshines their other novels, and authors who wrote a great novel that's just a bit better than...

As someone who has often visited but never lived in the South, who am I to write a blog post about America's southern fiction?

Well, I just finished Cormac McCarthy's Suttree. I've read many other "non-northern" novels such as Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. I'm aware that...

Many characters in literature are compelling for various reasons, one of which may involve having a disability.

Protagonists with physical issues can be admirable, inspirational, pitiable, embittered, etc. -- or a mix of all those things. It's fascinating for readers to see how a disability affects a character's psyche and...

Some senior discounts start at age 55, and there are also payoffs for readers of fiction featuring older protagonists.

Don't get me wrong, I love it when kids, teens, and young adults star or costar in novels. It's fascinating to wonder how their lives will turn out as they encounter...