Literary Merit

Literary merit is practically impossible to define but it is the measure of quality of a written work, usually of fiction. In my opinion, it is mere opinion. (weird) But honestly, there are no real "judges" or all knowing people that can read a book and decided if its worthy or not. There are book awards-and many of them-and their committees of course, that reward novels with excellent literary merit. Looking for Alaska is one such book that has excellent literary merit, both in my opinion, and the opinion of experts in the field, the American Library Association. This is because the novel earned the Printz Award which is decided on by the ALA and given to a novel that exemplifies literary excellence. The novel, which is beautifully written, deserves all the praise in the world. The themes, language, voice, and characters are all exemplary of the novels sheer literary excellence. To me, merit is deserved for the mere division of the book into two sections, before and after. The Before which takes us on a journey into the characters, and the After, which unravels the story of an adolescents death, and the struggle, grief, confusion, and forgiveness that young people go through when losing a friend. I love the mystery that evolved in the After, and the different perspectives and possibilities that Greene chose to include.