Riddle Me This...
| Define, in your own words, what the following terms mean: 1. "Women's Fiction" 2. "Chick-Lit" 3. "Contemporary Fiction" And give a recommendation of a book or story that would fit. Please and thank you ;). |
posted by sybil
at
1:30:00 AM
Just what I *think* they mean:
Women's Fiction - story focuses on women's issues and can be about anything and rarely about romance. Can have friendships and family and no HEA needed. Patricia Gaffney wrote what I considered WF called The Saving Graces. Although I enjoyed the book I have not read another of hers.
Chick-Lit - usually youngish unattached career women. I have never read a serious one because I haven't tried ;) Can have a HEA but story has little to no romance. Shopaholic books (I've read 2) Maybe Marian Keyes books - Watermelon - I liked till the heroine did something stupid and The Other Side of the Story which I think I blogged about - not bad but I would only read one once a year.
Contemporary Fiction - makes me suicidal. Again, can be about anything, usually a male protagonist but can be female. Depressing as hell and gets even more depressing and then it get's picked for the Oprah book club. Seriously, I wouldn't recommend any of her stuff. Although I think The Davinci Code and The Time Travelor's Wife could be considered as this. Oh, I did once read The Lovely Bones which I thought was a fantastic book because I had never read anything that touched on this subject. Little too perfect at the end.
CindyS
By
CindyS, at 2/23/2006 05:53:00 AM
I dunno Sybil, that's sounding a lot like homework...
By
Anonymous, at 2/23/2006 03:05:00 PM
LOL
No really I am not sure I get it.
Like what makes chick-lit different than WF? The shoe brand the age of the characters?
and is the hea the only thing that makes contemp fic different than a contemp romance?
By
sybil, at 2/23/2006 05:18:00 PM
You know, the whole chick lit discussion is starting to remind me of the review one and I already steer clear of that one. Well, I try anyway.
But what gets me about the whole chick lit and even women's lit thing is that when people start describing them, I immediately flashback to those old romances circa 1940s & 1950s.
(No, I'm not THAT old but our library was for many years.)
The only dif is that most of them had romantic happy endings and weren't told in first person, although probably some of them were. The bulk of the plots, though, could be used for chick lit today, just change times, clothes and careers. Talk about your same old, same old . . . and yet everyone's acting like this new wave is something totally new and fresh that's never been done before.
I don't get it. Well, I do get that we have very short collective memories and marketing is marketing - but still. It would be nice if people didn't act like chick lit invented the wheel or something.
Okay, I think my migraine medicine is kicking in and I'm rambling big time so it's off to bed for me. (G)
By
Bev (BB), at 2/23/2006 08:01:00 PM
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