It is rather agonizing to run through the pages of that novelist who, being a good writer, meticulous and serious, cannot rise above the banal. Oh, how unfortunate! We cheer for him, we want to help him, we hope that on the next page the narrative will reach a higher level; but it is no use, nothing comes of it, and in the end we are left to lament. At least we remember that the great writer is great among many, and it is precisely his rarity that makes him special.