The death of the novel has been argued and rebutted and argued again. Drawing from David Shields‘s book of literary criticism, Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, Alexander Nazaryan wonders whether the essay might do a better job:
Reality Hunger argues that to survive, the novel must become less like itself, to just stop with the whole plot-character-theme business…If you have something to say, say it plainly, without all the juvenile disguises of the novel.