I started reading Dennis LeHane’s Mystic River today and was hooked. I should read more crime fiction, more popular fiction, I thought. And then I came across a sentence that showed me the difference between popular fiction and literary fiction.

On its own this sentence I am going to share is sort of funny. Slightly amusing one liner. But in the context of a scene trying to build suspense? In the context of a serious work of fiction? It’s cringeworthy!

Are you ready…

( I hope I haven’t built this up too much, because it’s not that bad.)

Jimmy hadn’t seen anything resembling this kind of chaos since the last time he’d attended an Irish wedding with an open bar… (70)

There you have it. My conceited judgement.