Won't stop me from expressing an opinion. The book is Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife, a fictional novel about a first lady that on the surface sounds a lot like Laura Bush.
By surface I mean that Sittenfeld took some basic well known facts about Bush and inserted them into her protagonist Alice Blackwell. Like Bush, Blackwell is a librarian who was in a car crash that took the life of a classmate and eventually ends up marrying a wealthy and somewhat wild scion of a political dynasty. Sittenfeld then crafted a bunch of fiction around it and viola, suddenly we have a bold, brave novel instead of laziness and a lack of creativity.
If not for that, would this book get any hype? If in fact, the author tried to write a story of a first lady that did use what I will describe here as "Google Research" and was not a (not even) thinly veiled version of Laura Bush, would anyone care?
This is not about defending Laura Bush. It's about a new form of literature. Whether it's The Devil Wears Prada (but at least that author worked for Anna Wintour) or some other piece of mock fiction, it's getting a little tired. Perhaps I'll do one on an author who has one idea for a book based loosely on their own experiences, then gets a book deal and puts out one piece of crap after another, usually loosely based on someone known enough to get knowing winks and nods from critics but without any real or deep insight at all.
I know, I know. Well, hotshot why don't you get off your ass and crank out some crap and laugh your way to the bank.
I would, but I'm pulling in too much cash with the porn work for now.
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2 comments:
"No stars! Stage Actors. That British guy, what's his name?"
The book is tanking. No one wants to read about the first family anymore. It should have been published two years ago.
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