He's a bitter hack.

I would agree that novel writing is dormant, and whenever that happens, there are always those who declare its death. It's true for anything. But just like every other time an artistic or entertainment medium has lied dormant, it only takes one or two success stories before the whole industry rises again. When I was in high school and everyone had their nose in a good novel, they were decrying the death of historical nonfiction. And look where we are now.

My reading list is about 10-1 non-fiction to fiction.