In the first episode of The West Wing we're introduced to characters (the White House staff) who are witty and passionate, likable, but two of them have also just gotten themselves in trouble: One finds out the woman he just slept with is a call girl, another is in trouble for a gaffe he made on TV, and the President has just crashed his bike into a tree. They're not intimidating or worldly--they're imperfect and therefore likable.
The first scene of Jane (the Jane Eyre update) is similar--a protagonist at a job interview which she desperately needs. She actually needs it more than the Phillips' character does, and we're told she's desperate, and we're told why. But I guess I didn't feel the desperation, didn't see it acted out as in the Phillips' book. And she gets the first job she tries for, no struggle, no obstacles. I got a quarter into the book without seeing an obstacle.
Not trying to pick on first time novelist Lindner, just having some Thinks.
On topic song of le day: This is one of my favorite opening lines to a song --> "High school she was that girl that made me do the hula hoop around the gym--just to get a peek again, she's a ten!" It's a song about the sex trade, but poignantly starts with this sweet image of the cute high school girl, and the boy with the crush.
Acoustic version
Original version
6 comments:
Match Me if You Can is my favorite SEP (with the possible exception of Heaven, Texas). Most of hers I feel like sacrifice character development for humor, but Match Me balances out. It has one of the best hero turnarounds I've ever read-- he is truly an ass at the beginning, but then (believably) figures out how to be a decent human being. I had the opposite reaction to that opening scene, though. SEP seems to enjoy humiliate-the-heroine-for-humor scenes, and I don't. I had to get over it to enjoy the rest of the book. You know, I haven't read it in several years, though, I should try it again and see if it strikes me the same way.
I, too loved that SEP book. I always love her, though. Even the first ones where she needed a better editor have much to offer in my opinion. I've just reread 2 of hers - This Heart of Mine and my second favorite of all of hers - Breathing Room.
I always love her protags and her heroines. Humor is important to me and I love SEP for it.
Really dug that acoustic version.
protags and her heros - not heroines - her protags being heroines - sorry
I've only read Breathing Room and Nobody's Baby -- which I both loved -- and What I Did for Love, which was mixed. Interestingly I find she doesn't sacrifice emotion for humor, I find her books pretty shmoopy but really well done shmoopy. The best shmoopy in the biz. But maybe that's because my love for humor is SO high, that the SEP level seems "normal to below" what I find acceptable. Most romances that other people think are Laugh Out Loud funny do no more than make me smile.
I had mixed feelings about Match Me. His transformation was great, but...
I found her rejection of him to be harsh--I didn't like her so much at the end.
I found SEP did something really interesting when he meets her family and can see how much they love her, which we know she can't see -- but SEP didn't follow up on that. I thought she'd do something interesting with it, but didn't.
And I didn't like that circle of Previous Character friends, lol.
In re the heroines humiliated: I think I know what you mean, but I've never found her use gratuitous. For ex in Match Me, I didn't find that scene humiliating, and didn't feel I was meant to laugh AT her. It seemed like a realistic awkward circumstance, and only embarrassing. Like... she didn't go into the interview with her skirt tucked into her nylons, she was just Wilting. Or in Breathing Room, I felt that the heroine was so Dr Phil-ish, she'd have to suffer a major crash in order to lose complacency. And that crash would be public by the nature of her profession.
Well... every reader is different! Match Me is very highly rated on Goodreads, and is the fave of many people. I think we can at least agree that she is a really skilled writer.
My friend's fave is Dream a Little Dream, which I've been saving. ;-)
I love humor, too, but I think I just have a different sense of humor than SEP. Crusie cracks me up. Evanovich cracks me up (at least the early ones). SEP makes me cringe. The one where she is wandering on the side of the road in a beaver suit-- can't remember the title-- it just isn't funny to me. But the opening scene of Crusie's Charlie All Night makes me laugh till I cry.
I haven't read Breathing Room, I'll have to try it. Vacation coming up on Saturday, maybe I will see if it's on Kindle. I have a complete love/hate relationship with Phillips. I keep reading them because the middles are so good, but usually the beginnings and the ends seem WAY over the top to me. But then the middles are some of the best stuff I've read in genre fiction. There was one--OK, I just went and found the title-- Dream a Little Dream-- that had (for me) the usual overdone beginning and end, but the middle of it struck right to my heart. The hero has to learn to connect with the heroine's son, and it is really well done. Then the ending just ruined it. imo.
So. Mixed bag for me. I never mind reading them, but I often skim the beginning and the end. And btw, I also agree that the ending of Match Me went on one crisis too long. But it seemed to fit better to me than any of her other endings have (put that in the context above-- I've never read an ending of hers that I liked)-- he was such a jerk, he needed to come that unglued. sort of.
and btw, I do know that I'm alone here. EVERYONE loves SEP. So I'm willing to acknowledge that it's just my weird taste.
Post a Comment