How to Kill a Literary Genre

Jordan Castro’s The Novelist: A Novel describes a morning during which an unnamed writer struggles to resume work on an autobiographical novel. He can’t stop himself from checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or his email; his progress is further impeded by anxiety, self-doubt, and the sheer variety of impressions and memories that flood his internal monologue. Perhaps he has good reason to avoid writing: His novel confronts his past as a heroin addict.