'The problem is the reader': Howard Jacobson says the novel is not dead

Writer laments short attention spans and decline of nuanced criticism in age of social media

In the face of plummeting sales of literary fiction, the writer Howard Jacobson has declared that the novel is not dead: the problem is the modern reader, who apparently lacks the attention span to enjoy the intellectual challenge of reading.

In a speech, which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking programme on Thursday, Jacobson lamented the distractions facing today’s reader and the decline of nuanced criticism that had come with didactic social media.

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