Why Dave Eggers etc. cut no ice (well, very little) with me

I love genre fiction, and when it is well-executed, I find it infinitely preferable to literary fiction. In general I love novels for imposing narrative structure on this world; I know real life is scary and random, and retreating into the deliberately constructed order of someone else's writing is how I choose to give myself a break from this knowledge. And genre fiction - writing within the bounds of a mystery novel, or science fiction - I think requires more creativity, sensitivity, and intelligence than writing more free-form literary fiction. Since it's harder, there are fewer people who do it well; but when it is done well, it is the kind of writing I find most satisfying. (Some examples - Reginald Hill, John D. MacDonald, Josephine Tey, PD James, Peter S. Beagle, Lee Childs*, Octavia E. Butler, Michael Swanwick, Patrick O'Brian.)

This is post is inspired by the fact that I have spent most of the morning in my bathrobe, drinking coffee, and avidly reading 'Spook Country', William Gibson's latest. I've read 'Neuromancer', of course, and 'Pattern Recognition'; he's just amazing. (And I think he wouldn't disapprove of the fact that I was also listening to Britney Spears. High geekitude + pure pop = very satisfying Friday morning. Thanks, grad school, for enabling this lifestyle!)

* Ok, kind of a guilty pleasure. I think the best thing about Lee Childs is his ability to create atmosphere - after the book, you're like 'Surely nobody could actually cause that much mayhem with a toothbrush', but at the time you forget to breathe because you're so focused on the narrative.