What quality in a novel is it which prompts it to be labelled as "grunge literature"? And why do so many authors of books which fall into this genre object so strenuously to the label? Grunge is the literature and fiction of young people living in inner cities around the world, it is not a new genre as publishers would have us believe, but traces its roots back through the history of the novel. There is one common thread which runs throughout all grunge novels, and that is the parody of modern western society and the values which it endorses ....