Gil Thorpe is a great diversion and is to book writing as poetry is to prose.
As for dialogue, I think it keeps things moving to cut to the chase.
Of course, bad marriages are so pervasive that they have invaded the faith community too.
Books that do a tenth of what Left Behind has done are smashing successes.
Wherever you have people, you have factions and disagreements and personality conflicts.
I love inventing worlds and characters and settings and scenarios.