********* I think it may have been Alice Munro. Anyway, I'm now re-reading MOLLOY by Beckett. It's sort of prep as I go see "Waiting for Godot" next Wednesday in Perth.
You asked, "must every damn modern novel be some sort of mystery?" I don't think CATCH 22 or MOLLOY are concerned so much with mystery as with about catching us out, tripping up what's taken to be commonsense in our daily lives with humour. I read CATCH22 on a troop ship crossing the Pacific back in '65 and rolled with laughter below decks, in my squashed bunk as I heard the vomiting in the 'head'. MOLLOY still makes me laugh out loud every time I immerse myself in its 'nothing can be done' absurdities. Flannery O'Connor, when she isn't so obvious about her Catholic faith, portrays an atmosphere in which the 'banality of evil' is propelled by ignoramuses embracing fundamentalist Christianity e.g. "Wise Blood".
Hi-ho, Mike B) *********************************************************************** http://wobblytimes.blogspot.com/