Arts & Crafts

Which came first, the story or the verse?

Talk about a tale as old as time, or at least a tale as old as Plato versus Aristotle. What’s more important: Telling a good story, or telling a story well?

In other words, put up yer dukes and hash it out, great storytellers versus great stylists.

In this ring, the great storytellers, including Stephen King, Lewis Carroll, Nora Roberts, John Grisham, and Daphne Du Maurier.

In this ring, the literati, including Toni Morrison, Franz Kafka, George Eliot, William Faulkner, and Margaret Atwood.

(There’s obviously a bit of overlap in those lists.)

Who gets the most readers?

It’s no contest. When it comes to readers and book sales, great storytelling triumphs every time. It’s usually a TKO.

And, of course, there are writers who combine great storytelling with great writing. Anthony Doerr. The aforementioned Morrison and Atwood. Edith Wharton (let’s leave Ethan Frome out of it for the moment. . . ). Jim Shepard. George Saunders. Marilynne Robinson. Sometimes they even sell a shit-ton of books, and everyone rejoices. It’s a win-win. It’s also what we writers all want to achieve: Music and lyrics, peanut butter and jelly, diamonds and pearls.

I’m currently practicing my German with an online app and added to my vocabulary this week was “basteln,” or as it was defined by the app, “arts and crafts.” Curious that in German it’s a single word rather than a phrase, I looked it up and found that it technically means “handicrafts.” Things created by hand. Needlework. Carvings. Ceramics. More.

Any one of those “handicrafts” can become a work of art, depending on the time, skill, and thought the maker invests in it. But sometimes, a homely basket or lumpy jug is all you need — and, through love and use, becomes beautiful to you. More precious than the most famous Rothko painting.

But another word from a different language I love is “kintsugi,” the Japanese art of taking a broken ceramic handicraft and repairing it with gold. Some of the most elegant books I’ve read remind me of kintsugi: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

I don’t have an answer about how much storytelling versus how much style makes a novel great. But I do know that, for me, both matter.

What do you think? What are your own kintsugi-like novels? As always, thanks for reading.