Brodsky says something extremely true: what the reader seeks in literature is to read about himself. This justifies, on the reader’s part, literary preferences; on the writer’s part, it justifies his success or rejection. If we identify success with popularity, the most successful author will be the most popular, and it is easy to see that to be so, he will have to come closer than the others to the reality of the common individual. What the reader seeks, in short, is a book that could have been written by himself. And that says it all.