The Library Diva: Blog, books, and more...

Tonight is Reader Advisory class night (a.k.a. the class that is not sucking my soul away in bits and pieces), and from some of the emails I've received from my students I can tell that there is the potential for it to be a wacky night. Woo hoo!

For tonight's class I read Imaginary Men by Anjali Banerjee. While attending her sister's wedding professional matchmaker Lina Ray feels the stigma of being the oldest, unmarried daughter. Everyone in Lina’s family seems to be conspiring to marry her off, regardless of how Lina feels about her single state. When her Auntie Kiki introduces her to yet another undesirable suitor Lina tells her family, "I'm engaged." Now Lina needs to find someone to be her fiancé or she risks disappointing her family once again. Going on one bad date after another, Lina's imaginary man begins to take on a life of his own in her mind. To further complicate things her imaginary man begins to look a lot like Raja, a client who has hired her to find a wife for his brother. Will Lina be able to find a fiancé before her family finds out she lied? Or will her attraction to the traditional Raja get in her way? This book is recommended to all fans of Chick Lit, particularly those who have ever felt that they cannot live up to their family's expectations. This is also a great read for those who enjoy reading about other cultures.

I think tonight's discussion of Chick Lit has the potential to be almost as volatile as the night we discussed Romance. One of the students who was quite vocal about her distaste for Romance (so vocal I expected Manogirl to jump over the desk and have her in a choke hold at any given moment) emailed me a few days ago to say that she was all prepared to dislike Chick Lit, but was surprised to find herself actually liking it. If I had to guess I would say that she erroneously associated Chick Lit with Romance, and carried her opinions over from there.

And that leads me to ask an ugly question that is sure to lead to a really bad place, but I can't resist asking. Which genre do you think has the worst reputation? Chick Lit or Romance?

posted by Kelly @ 9:11 AM

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Comments:

Romance has the worst reputation. Do not shoot the messenger, I like romance.

The first thing I think of for stereotypical romance literature are the silly covers. They have the half naked Fabio men clutching the bodice of a Scarlett O'Hara type in the middle of what must be hurricane force winds, looking all sultry at each other.

Honestly can you take anything seriously with those silly covers?

# posted by michelle : 4/05/2006 11:41 AM

I'd agree, except those stereotypical covers are becoming harder and harder to fine. Not that they are totally dead, but I can't remember the last book I bought that had a true bodice ripper look to it.

I think Chick Lit sometimes takes a bigger beating because there isn't always a happily ever after. Chick Lit is not Romance, so there isn't a guaranteed HEA. However, some readers expect it and get super pissy towards Chick Lit when they don't deliver the HEA. To me that seems worse. Why berate a genre for lacking something it isn't necessarily suppose to have?

# posted by Kelly : 4/05/2006 2:45 PM

I think reviewers and readers have been more vocal in recent years reviling Chick Lit, but only because it is a relatively recent publishing phenomenon. Romance has much the worse reputation overall, based on decades of cheesy covers, models with man-titty, and the oh so popular I-love-you-I-hate-you forced sex epics of the 80s.

What did you think of Imaginary Men? I read it earlier this year, and blogged about it. Am looking forward to Banerjee's next book, Imaginary Lives.

# posted by jmc : 4/08/2006 1:20 PM

Overall I would say I really liked it. Lina's issues were complex and the author didn't cheat the reader by giving her an easy solution. Some might find the ending a bit frustrating since it doesn't provide a clear look into Lina's future, but I thought it was appropriate and true to Lina.

I didn't know that Benerjee had another book coming out, so I'm very excited to hear about that! Thanks for the heads up! :-)

# posted by Kelly : 4/08/2006 2:16 PM

April 05, 2006

Let's Talk Chick Lit