Emphasis Preaching Journal

A writer has said that one of the purposes of a novelist is to make ordinary life seem legitimate. While most people we know lead ordinary lives, many of them feel that ordinary living is lacking, that it is not sufficiently special, that it is not quite a legitimate way of spending one's three score and 10 years. For them real life is "out there" somewhere where the party is, and their only hope is to find themselves transported to the party. Others seem to think that their ordinary lives are not sufficiently normal. Their agenda is to get "back to" or "around to" living a normal life.