SOURCE: "A Call to Authors: Explore Culture," in The Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 84, August 17, 1992, p. 14.

In the following interview, Birkerts expresses his attitude toward contemporary novelistic fiction and reading habits of the public.

To stretch a comparison here, critic Sven Birkerts has approached what he sees as the weak cathedral of the American novel, and like Martin Luther with his 95 theses, has nailed a protest to the door.

In this case, the protest (really a summons) is directed at American novelists writing in the fields of minimalism, nostalgia, and the other sweet-smelling soaps of Post-Modernism. Mr. Birkerts wants them to return to the novel form that explores culture with depth and historical resonance.

His engaging new book, American Energies, contains his "summons" on page 150. It is a list of the attributes to be found in the works of "elder writers." followed by the "lite" attributes of younger writers...