Realistic Fiction and Escape

Australian author Emily Maguire, guesting this week on Sarah Weinman's blog, writes:

Something my editor said to me yesterday has been bothering me, and I‘d like to hear your thoughts on it. She said that when the real world is in a mess and the future looks bleak, (i.e. now) people read fiction to feel better. Her theory is that most people turn to non-fiction to understand current events and the more depressing these current events, the more uplifting fiction needs to be...I argued that any fiction can be an escape from grim reality as long as it sucks the reader right into the story. That’s all fine and good, she said, but at the end of the book, the reader has to return to the world and if the story has left them more depressed than when they started reading, they won’t thank you for it...Since many of you write and read fiction dealing with murder, brutality and other nasties, I wonder if you can articulate why you enjoy this fiction. Is it simply an escape into a fictional world that grips you sufficiently to hold you there, or do you want something more? Since the real world is shitty and unfair, do you want this to be reflected in the ‘realist’ novels you read, or is the knowledge the world is shitty, unfair etc. the very thing that drives you to seek out worlds where life is actually pretty just?

I left a reply in Sarah's comments section, on which I'll expand here:

IMO, the only required difference between real life and fiction is that fiction have "roundness." Expectations set up in the beginning of a story must be addressed by the end.

I prefer fiction that is more real because it's easier to relate to. The shorter the leap from reality to fiction, the more willing I am to make it.

I read crime fiction because it distills many of fiction's elements to their purest form. Mystery is the most basic element of fiction; curiosity keeps readers turning pages. In crime fiction, the mystery, suspense, characters' motivation are all more evident.

Finally, I read crime fiction to play at being both the hero and the villain. Again, I find it easier to get into these roles when the world of the story is closer to the world I live in.