Reading as Therapy: What Contemporary Fiction Does for Middle-Class Americans

(University of Iowa Press) Aubry argues that contemporary fiction serves primarily as a therapeutic tool for lonely, dissatisfied middle-class American readers, validating their own private dysfunctions while supporting communities of strangers unified by shared readings and shared feelings. He makes the case that the appeal of contemporary literature depends on its capacity to fulfill psychological needs of its readers.   Aubry is an associate professor of English at Baruch College, where he specializes in twentieth-century American literature, contemporary fiction, modernism, feminism, and popular culture.