On the surface, the economy doesn’t seem like the sexiest topic for a novelist to explore. But a dramatic swing in the economy means great drama in people’s lives. Just as the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and the Roaring ’20s provided the setting and inspiration for works of art and literature in their respective eras, the current economic downturn figures heavily into all sorts of new novels.
USA Today rounds up a bunch of recently released and soon-to-be-released novels with titles like The Recessionistas and The Gods of Greenwich, in which characters deal with debilitating credit card debt, Ponzi schemes, unemployment, vanishing portfolios, subprime mortgages, and other light-hearted, very “today” subjects.
Why would readers be interested in this kind of stuff? Probably for the same reasons the concept of “recession porn” has proved a popular source of stories in the media: We’re all fascinated with the human impact of the recession because by reading about the struggles of others, one’s own struggles don’t seem quite so bad (hopefully).