Crossings Book Club Subscribe to our Free Newsletter. In real life, Kress says, we want no problems and for life to proceed smoothly, but no one wants to read a book of someone like that.
People read novels for the crises.
Some of us seem to go from one disaster to another. I once stood by a hospital bed where a precious lady was dying of cancer. She has been one of our city's preeminent elementary school teachers and had taught one of my three children. She had painted excellent watercolors and written great poetry. A year earlier we had buried her husband, and numerous other troubles had settled upon her household.