Blogger: Michelle Ule
Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
We know, we know, it’s Etta’s turn to blog this week. She’ll be back tomorrow to talk about book series.
In the meantime, we’ve been ruminating on a comment Nicole made Friday about the lack of sagas in the market these days. One of us had to visit the dictionary to define just what a saga is and found Nicole’s meaning in the third definition: “a series of novels about several generations or members of a family.”
She wanted to argue there wasn’t a difference between a saga and an epic, so we went back to the dictionary for epic: “a book that extends beyond the usual or ordinary, especially in size or scope.” We all agreed that would describe James Michener’s works very well, and also could apply to Alex Haley’s Roots.
Sagas made us think of The Forsythe Saga by John Galsworthy, Anthony Trollope’s The Chronicles of Barsetshire, and Elswyth Thane’s Williamsburg Series, which follows the Day family from pre-Revolutionary days until World War II. It also could apply to a lot of books made into films for Masterpiece Theater.
Thinking about sagas I’ve read, brought back a poignant reminder of long summer days with a series of fat books, an opportunity to spend delicious hours savoring the chronicles of people whose family was familiar to me. And typing this just now, I wonder if that is where my fascination with genealogy began?
In contemporary terms, the books we thought of were some of the Karen Kingsbury’s series–following family members, though not necessarily in succeeding generations.
Why aren’t they popular these days? Could it be a generational situation?
So our question to you all is, do you enjoy sagas? Which ones? And into which generation do you fall?
Wendell Berry’s fiction is, as far as I know, all about the people in the quasi-fictional town of Port William. The books typically center on one character, but the backdrop and supporting cast are familiar and the time frames are scattered over a hundred years. Narrow in focus for a saga, but thoughtful and deep.
I guess it could be said that I’m currently at work on a family saga, the first of which (Paradise Valley) deals with an Amish family migrating to Mexico in the 1920s. It eventually ties into Levi’s Will, which means the four books will span sixty years.
If I can finish writing it.
I LOVE SAGAS! I wish they were selling (for my sake as a reader and as a writer), but their time will come again.
One complaint I’ve had from readers about sagas is the size of the books – big hardcovers are difficult to hold, and in paperback form, the words are too small. Maybe the new Kindle-type reading devices will make a difference. (Although, I don’t like reading from a screen.) Paper costs are also a factor, especially in countries other than the US and Canada. In Japan, each of the translations of my sagas were published in two volumes because of paper costs.
Thank you for the interesting post!
A side note to my comments, Michelle. I have an old “favorite” dictionary. Its second definition of saga reads “any long narrative”. Its definitions of epic center on long narrative poems, i.e. Beowulf.
So I concluded, based on these definitions, that I write “sagas” simply because they’re contemporary stories which extend beyond the 80-100,000 preferred word counts. They don’t necessarily include generations of families, and they take place in the here and now.
I suppose Francine Rivers’ latest novel and its sequel would most likely be called a saga by your definition.
The point I hoped to make was that there truly are a lot of readers who enjoy long contemporary novels that extend beyond 300-350 pages in a rather open “template”. So I apologize if my old dictionary led my clarity astray in expressing my (and others’) preferences.
I love long novels, but I don’t read historicals, fantasy, or scifi which are the genres where most long novels are found. It’s especially fun when I can find a few thriller novels which extend beyond the restrictive word counts. (And I’m talking CBA fiction here.)
I love family sagas, it’s actually something I’m trying to reinvent in my own writing. In this day and age of fiction we as writers have to use creative ways to present a multi-generational story. My take is a layered contemporary story that with POV characters from several generations interacting in one storyline that reaches back into the past.
IMHO the time is ripe for sagas, especially contemporary ones. Leila Meacham’s Roses is a good example of a current bestselling saga. Other favorites of mine are novels by Rosamunde Pilcher, Belva Plain, Collen McCullough, etc.
Good questions, Michelle! Now as I’m writing about series, I can’t help but wonder if “saga” applies to more than one book as well as “a long detailed account” or “a modern heroic narrative resembling the Icelandic saga” (Webster’s Collegiate, 11th ed.). Should we be using the plural if we are talking about more than one novel, even if they are in a series?
I like what Chris said about a layered story that reaches into the past. My current WIP is a historical story interspersed with contemporary events, but told from only the protagonist’s POV. I enjoy reading books where present events are enlightened by the present and vice versa. However, in a recent contest my entry was dinged heavily for not being told chronologically. But to do so would lessen the story’s tension and the impact of the theme.
Thank you for this conversation — great to know sagas/epics are still appreciated.
In the three sagas I referenced above, all were stand-alone multi-volumed stories. You could read them separately, but the “richness” of the experience improved if you read them in order. So, does that make them a series or a saga?
Perhaps saga incorporates a broader concept–a bigger story arc that resolves in the final book while looking back on the earlier ones?
But isn’t that what a series of books does?
Perhaps I’m splitting hairs, but it seems to me a saga would incorporate broad, more universal themes spread out over generations into one whole. And thinking back to the Icelandic tradition, perhaps it needs heroic efforts as well?
The current “series books” often are not well done in that they cheat the reader by making the first one a total setup for the next one when both would be better books combined. Being a reader (and a writer) I resent that.
The good series novels usually tell complete stories with overlapping characters. (The Patrick Bower thrillers by Steven James; Kristen Heitzmann’s Secrets, Unforgotten, Echoes to name a couple.) They take long enough to employ real character development and detail/history/locales.
Based on my dictionary’s definition of sagas, I still maintain that long novels (narratives) don’t have to include a bunch of history but can take place in contemporary settings featuring the focus on the lives/situations of its characters in particular circumstances.
Think Pretense by Lori Wick which did show the developing lives of two sisters from childhood. Think Rush of Wings and The Still of Night by Kristen Heitzmann.
I love sagas according to Nicole’s definition– generational family stories. I read Francine Rivers latest book, Her Mother’s Hope. First heavy hardback book I’ve every taken on an airplane trip. (Made the mistake of starting it before my trip and couldn’t put it down.)
As Nicole said, Her Mother’s Hope, coupled with the sequel fits the definition of a saga.
The first saga I remember reading was Canadian author Mazo de la Roche’s JALNA novels. I’m not sure exactly what drew me in, but the adventures of the Whiteoak family hooked me during my middle teen years. I read the books as fast as I could find them on the library shelves. Today’s reviews consistently mention the books’ “soap opera qualities.” But someone else must have liked them–more than 12 million sold before they went out of print in the 1970s. The saga has also inspired a play, a movie, and a television series; some of the novels have been re-released. I may need to revisit these to discover why I loved them so much!
The Dune books fit the definition of “saga,” it seems to me. A huge story in a unique story-world, spanning generations, planets, and a gazillion pages.
I wonder if contemporary readers lack the patience for a saga.
Do you think a saga is planned or discovered? Was it intentional from the first book, or did the author/publisher/reading public realize that the story-world was so rich it begged further exploration?
Bill’s right in that there are a number of readers in today’s society who don’t have time or the patience to read long novels or sagas. But I maintain that good books prevail regardless of their lengths because even if only half a chapter is read per day, people who are engrossed in a story will make time to read a good book.
We talk about not assuming things about our readers–like they’re stupid by writing down to them, etc. I think it’s a wrong assumption to cut the corners and produce shorter novels. I think if you look at the ABA, the larger percentage of bestselling novels are longer. People still read bigger books, don’t all need staccato, verb-rich text, and truly still do appreciate amazing prose and the detail it usually includes. I refuse to believe I’m all alone in this. (And my young teenage granddaughters would read 1000 page novels if given a good story. So there! 😉 )
Sagas (or epics, which ever) are definitely my favorites. Give me Wouk and Michener any day.
All I can say about sagas that are ongoing now is: I’m now on book sixteen of the Bjorklund books as readers are calling them, and the town of Blessing ND that I created by and for the Bjorklund family. I am on the second generation. the series started in 1880 and am now in 1904. While these are not huge books,they are near the 100,000 word range. lots of history and have a good following of faithful readers. The first series of six, second of three, third of four and I’m writing the last book of three in the fourth. Had no idea the first two books would turn into this longevity. Blessings, Lauraine
Bill’s comment about the Dune books put me in mind of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series–where they set out to build a new world on a planet (later books set in earlier times).
McCaffrey published the original Dragons of Pern and then wrote books about different continents on the planet using offshoot family members.
I think her books may be sagas because they tie together with an overriding “saga arc” — conquering the new world and confronting the Thread crises. The final book in the series/saga finishes with later generations finally vanquishing the Thread menace. That’s why I would the Pern books taken together as a saga.
As to your Blessings books, Lauraine, you can see that Etta defines them on Wednesday as a series. But who am I to argue?
And does it really matter as long as we get a good read?
And do you suppose we read more sagas as teenagers because we had more time to do so?
Jumping in a little late here, but when I think of sagas, I think of Louis L’Amour’s Sackett family.
I’m a bit late for the discussion, but I do like sagas. Especially those written by Wilbur Smith. He has a family series The Courtneys in Africa, and an old world Egyptian saga about the Pharoahs.