if a great novel will really immesh rabbbly add to our understanding of human character and human nature in a way that's very difficult in real life to have that kind of concentrated experience. you can have it in novel. you can live many lives by reading books. >> rose: every review i've read compares you and this work to dickens. dickens was somebody that was inside of you, as you said, stephen king to name a famous writer -- >> who's another writer whose work i love and have venn rated since i was a child. >> rose: the best of dickens here, what is it you think is the connection? >> rose: what i love about dickens so much as a writer is there's no technical problem that dickens doesn't do well. he's amazing at character. he's amazing at suspense. he's got a fantastic command of metaphor. he's very, very funny. he is -- he's a fantastic storyteller. he's wonderful in terms of plot. you can't put his books down. and the thing about dickens i love so much, there's a warmth about him. he's a great teacher. many artists are very opaque and tried to hide their effects. dickens doesn't do th