I think I JA is too brave to let novels have an easy time, though she is defending them! She is not going to point out only the positive aspects and hide the negative, but she is showing that it is upto the reader, whatever the reading material is, what he/she makes of it.

Both people who dismiss novels just because they are fiction and those who become obsessed to a degree that they start confusing reality with fiction, are on a wrong footing. I too think Henry and Eleanor are the kind of readers JA likes and the type to which she (and probably her family) belongs to.