For the past 30 years the greatest novelists writing in English have been genre writers: John le Carr�, George Higgins and Patrick O'Brian.

I am a total science fiction fan on the whole however this year i've been delving into other literary mines for my gold
John le Carre i know from my childhood when my grandmother read his novels and a vague recollection of TV serialisations being required viewing. John le Carre is a brilliant writer and I've enjoyed several of his novels this year especially the Smiley trilogy.
And a week or so ago I started Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. I remember talk about him when he died and thought at the time yes i must read some and promptly forgot his name but an impression remained of a writer of naval stories during the great age of sail who was very admired and rich in authentic detail. Then last week I was reading the paper between calls at work when Patrick O'Brian's name was mentioned.
The article memed is an old one from when Patrick O'Brian died but it is by David Mamet, who I greatly admire, and is a defence of genre fiction and pleasure in literature.
To be enlightened and educated by a novel is good but principally I read to be entertained and enthralled by a narritive. Art should be a byproduct and not an aim. I have no faith in those who seek to create art, that is the road to pretension. Give me art by sleight of hand. Give me a writer who is not grandstanding their technique but is in the tradition of Homer, telling a story.