Literary merit

The definition of literary merit? Hmm. The significance that a specific novel has to the world. I'm a huge fan of books that deal with people's inner most feelings, feelings that they can't really explain or describe to other people. One book I read over the summer was The Vast Fields of Ordinary  by Nick Burd. This was my free choice book, it describes how this boy is trying to find happiness, in his remotely average and uneventful life, till he meets Alex. This book is important to because it describes the search for true happiness and discovering oneself along the way. This is a common theme that one would see in places such as Greek mythology. But what makes it a literary merit? What makes it significant to someone else? It doesnt but through Dade Hamilton, we self reflect. We look back at our own lives and realize what we are settling for. But that's not exactly literary merit that's more of a new way of thinking. But alas! The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan is. The first part of the story deals with Ruth who lives in San Francisco and believes that her mother is slowly getting crazier and crazier, her boyfriend and his two kids, and her undercover job as a writer. The second part is about Ruth's mother Lu Ling and her life in China with her nursemaid Precious Auntie and how Ruth tries to understand her. This book shows the idea of a woman, LuLing who grew up I'm a household where she wasn't fully accepted except by her nursemaid who couldn't even talk because she was burned  by ink. An then Precious Auntie turns out to be her mom! If that doesn't serve as an explanation for erratic behavior I don't kno what does. But I don't understand how this book qualifies as literary merit,, while the story is nicely constructed and well written, the content of the story matches up with that of a normal, non-literary merit book. Not something that one would later on reference or quote from. It's interesting to know how some books  that are considered literary merits, that you never thought originally would be. But then it makes you wonder who determines what is considered a literary merit? Who makes the final say so? Is some collective idea, are there some types of requirements? The more I think about it the more I wonder. I cann describe why I think a book maybe significant to me or why I think it may be relevant to the rest of the world doesn't mean that it actually is . These two novels have literary merit to me because they go along the theme of self, the idea of looking inward, and understanding .