Roman à Clef: NY Times Book Review Locks the Door on Fiction

In a recent post on the NY Times‘ online Talk to the Newsroom feature, one Jacob Silverman asked the newspaper’s book review editor, Sam Tanenhaus, “why the Book Review seems to review a significantly greater amount of nonfiction than fiction.”
And here is Tanenhaus’ learned answer:
For the simple reason that so much more nonfiction is published.
There must have been particularly slim pickings in the literary world last week: The 17-title contents page fronting yesterday’s Sunday Book Review section featured only one novel: Lydie Salvayre‘s “Everyday Life,” tantalizingly described by the Times in this subhead: “A psychodrama unfolds among workers at a Paris advertising agency.” Who could resist reading such a potent potboiler (or at least its review)?
In a small concession to disgruntled literature lovers, one of the reviewed nonfiction books was John Sutherland‘s “How to Read a Novel: A User’s Guide.”
Now that’s helpful. If only they’d also give us some wise guidance on what novels we might actually want to read!