THE NOVEL IS IMMORTAL. Why else would it continue to exist with all the other amusements jockeying for your attention? The novel thrives because no other medium truly gets you inside a story, a character, a town, a world—or a heart, a brain, a soul, a spleen. A movie can show you; a video game can give you a gadget and a sense that you're doing something; but a piece of fiction invites you into thoughts, feelings, ideas, motives, longings, beliefs like nothing else. You read, you're there. You r