Referring to a work of fiction as a “novel of ideas” is often a kind of thinly-veiled warning to a certain type of reader: the novel in question is one that focuses unapologetically on the thoughts and ideas of its characters or its writer; it is not “about” — or perhaps eschews completely — common conventions of plot and narrative development. In short, the “novel of ideas” often risks being, for some, boring. The phrase often pops up in blurbs on the back of hefty classics: The Man Without Qualities, In Search of Lost Time, pretty much any Dostoevsky. Alex Kovacs’ debut novel, The Currency of Paper is certainly a “novel of ideas,” albeit in a more literal sense.
