This course will analyze today's popular fiction in America. What makes a book a "best seller"? What makes "literature" sell (in the millions of copies)? Writers who strike it rich generaly write books that are fast-faced and easy to read, follow a set of conventions that readers recognize, and touch a nerve within their society. Writers who win the hearts of literari and schoolmarms generally try to touch that nerve also, but they do so with language and plots that are inventive, artistic, and memorable. With a focus on current American best sellers, this course will introduce you to a variety of literary sub-genres (true crime, memoir, road novel, extreme adventure, western, roots quest). The books we will read return often to the themes of individualism, race, and violence in American culture - prominent elements in our psyches, popular culture, and pulp fiction - though we will certainly discuss other themes, as well.