How to Read a Novel

A guide

Photo by Gülfer ERGİN on Unsplash

Several times in this space I have recommended the practice of reading great literature for spiritual and intellectual reasons. But if you aren’t in the habit of reading literature, you may find this recommendation daunting. To consider one genre, novels can be long, complicated, dense, and strange. They can challenge your beliefs, including your faith. They can unsettle and upset you. They can haunt you. At their best they reveal truths about God’s Cosmos that enable us to delight in Him and love our neighbor better. But that is not always easy to do. Sometimes it feels like an impossible task to read a novel. You may start and then give up, multiple times, feeling more guilty each time. So how do can you read a novel well? Here are some practical tips for approaching fiction that I have found helpful in my many decades of reading and ten years of teaching literature.

The Concept of Reading Novels

To begin with, what are works of literature? I believe literature is always an attempt to aesthetically convey some truths about the human experience in God’s Cosmos written by people who are fallen and who therefore will necessarily fail to accurately convey the whole Truth. I would describe this as a humanist and anthropological account of literature. It doesn’t see literature as some higher priestly calling, but it recognizes the aesthetic and truth-telling qualities of fiction.

If you accept my rough definition of literature then there are a number of conclusions that follow. The distinction between “Christian literature” and “secular literature” is less significant than it seems, because both the Christian novelist and the secular novelist will tell truths about God’s Cosmos and fail to tell truths about God’s Cosmos. They will tell truths whether they want to or not because they live and move and have their being in God’s creation! So the secular author who tells the truth about human psychology testifies to God’s creation whether he or she believes in God or not. And in my experience as a reader, it is common to find secular authors who have deep insight into the human mind and heart. Few answers about how to deal with the problems of the human mind and heart, but powerful explorations of those problems. “Christian literature,” on the other hand, suffers from the fall, just like “secular literature.” Authors who are Christian regularly fail to tell the truth about reality as it is, about life as it is. This isn’t a knock against authors who are Christian. Every author fails to tell the truth about reality. The best we can all do is strive to tell the truth.

So what this means as a reader is that you should come with humility, grace, and discernment to the text. With humility you accept that if this is good literature, there is something for you to learn here, regardless of whether it was written by a Christian or a non-Christian. I have learned a great deal about the nature of guilt, shame, and sin from non-Christian authors, even if they couldn’t tell me about redemption. With grace you accept that there will be inaccuracies and even falsehoods about reality. Characters will say things unrealistically (I think the mother’s dialogue in The Road is powerful but unrealistic, for example). Views will be promoted by authors or characters that are harmful or simply false. And this is also where the importance of discernment comes in, the ability to sift through the truth-telling and the falsehood to understand when the author is communicating something true and meaningful about the reality of God’s creation and when they are wrong. This doesn’t just happen at the propositional level. Because we are talking about literature, this often happens at the aesthetic level. For example, an author may make adultery look beautiful. Arguably this is the case in The End of the Affair (which is still a fantastic book with a lot of truth in it). So when I’m talking about “truth-telling,” don’t think exclusively or even primarily in propositional terms. Literature communicates truths through symbols, images, and colors—through aesthetics. Which is why when you are reading you should read discerningly. Practically, this means asking yourself what particular images and symbols are doing, what they communicate, why they are significant, and so on.

This brings us to another implication of this definition, and that is that we must learn to both allow ourselves to be in the story to understand it while keeping a healthy critical distance. This part may be controversial, but it comes from many years of teaching and reading, and I think it’s wise advice. It sounds paradoxical and it takes practice, but I think it’s true. You must at the same time allow yourself to enter into the world of the novel, while at the same time not become totally immersed into the story, because some stories simply are not safe enough to be immersed in. The purpose of the first goal is to humbly allow the story to take root in your imagination so that you can see it unfold. If you hold yourself as a superior, cynical critic, you will never see the beauty or goodness of the novel. So there must be an attitude of humility.

At the same time, I think it’s important to recognize the novel as a novel and not as your world, to be able to separate yourself and keep a healthy critical distance so that you are not totally absorbed or swayed by the literary work without discerning reflection. This is particularly the case with content that is troubling. For example, I’ve taught Toni Morrison’s Beloved six or seven times now and read it probably ten times. It is a powerful and beautiful novel, but also a horrifying novel. The horror serves a purpose: to convey the evils and trauma of slavery in the American South. But at times it is graphic. To read such a story so regularly requires that I allow the story to affect me without allowing it to overwhelm me. I am able to read these difficult passages with some healthy critical distance while still being moved by them. I retain control of my rational faculties while empathizing with the characters. In this way I never abandon my obligation to remain discerning about my thoughts and what I accept and believe, but I also read with humility, allowing what is true to come through. I am moved by the horrors of slavery and the trauma it produced; I am not frozen by the violence.

The Practice of Reading Novels

I have said before that I think listening to audiobooks is a perfectly legitimate way to read a novel; sometimes it’s that or nothing. But ideally, the best way to read is to read a physical book with a pen in hand, marking up the pages. Underlining favorite passages. Writing question marks beside sections you don’t understand. Flipping back and writing page numbers next to sections that connect to other pages. Circling repeated images or words. Interacting with the text and the author. This is especially the case if you are struggling to read and understand what’s happening in the novel. Dense novels often reveal themselves to readers when the readers engage the text physically. This will increase your concentration, help you stay awake, increase your memory, and help with your ability to interpret the novel.

If you are struggling to understand a novel, reading a summary of the text to aid your comprehension isn’t “cheating.” Sometimes a guide to who the main characters are or what the main plot points are can make a difference between whether you finish a novel or not. That’s fine. Try to read the novel without any aids, but if you get stuck, use the resources you have. But return to the act of reading. Once you let the resources replace the act of reading, then you have offloaded your reasoning and thinking to someone else.

Expect to reread. I consider myself a good reader and I regularly have to reread sentences, paragraphs, and entire chapters of books to understand them. And the best novels I’ve read only became my favorites after repeat readings. It is in repeated readings that the depth of the work reveals itself. That is when all the connections start falling into place.

When it is possible, try to read in community. Reading in community helps us enjoy literature better. It’s pleasant to share something you love with someone. And sometimes when you don’t love something you need someone else to show you how it is lovely. Find or start a good book club.

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Reading literary novels can be challenging. Like anything worth doing, it takes practice. And all signs point to it becoming an even more declining practice. I’m not sure who will be left to read novels if future generations are all educated by A.I. bots. I’m not sure who will be left to love what is lovely. But right now, this summer is a wonderful time to pick up a good novel and begin reading. Challenge yourself. It’s worth it.