Descent discussion

Why do certain so-called “genre” novels transcend the designation? John le Carré’s spy thrillers. Ursula K. LeGuin’s science fiction. Post-apocalypse novels such as Peter Heller’s Dog Stars, Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. These novels explode the boundaries of category because they’re beautifully crafted, both structurally and on the sentence level, and because they resonate more deeply than certain lesser novels, which are written and read as mere “entertainments.”

Johnston borrows directly from McCarthy and his prose style sometimes reads as blatantly derivative. But it's effective! Here are my thoughts as to why: http://bit.ly/2a5JCKm

What's your opinion?