My book doesn't seem to fall into a clear genre
What genre best describes my novel about the life of a character whose entirely fictional history includes many realistically humorous interludes as well as some serious, even tragic incidents? It begins with his birth in 1968 and finishes when he is in late middle age in approximately contemporary times.There is nothing autobiographical about it, I hasten to add.
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Genres are literary ghettos. They are places where people with particular and highly specific tastes (cosy mysteries, sword and sorcery, horse stories) can be assure that they get what they paid for and just what they paid for. Not all fiction belongs in these ghettos. Much of it serves an audience with more catholic tastes who are willing to try different things (which does not exclude them visiting the genre ghettos from time to time). They do not demand that every book they read must contain one wizard and at least 15 elves, 6 dwarves, a magic sword, and one plucky heroine.
If a book does not fall into an obvious genre ghetto, that simply means it is mainstream in its appeal, or at least is meant to be. The term for that (unsurprisingly) is "mainstream".
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