Chick Lit, Meet Manfiction

Tough-guy novels offer escapism, entertainment
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 13, 2008 12:57 PM CDT
Chick Lit, Meet Manfiction
Author Lee Child is the current king of manfiction, Stephen King writes.   (AP Photo/Jim Cooper)

With women taking the bestseller charts by storm, publishers may consider the male reading audience negligible, but that’s far from the case, writes Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly. In fact, men have their own form of chick lit—he calls it “manfiction”—which features the male equivalent of the “escape and entertainment” offered by women’s novels. Think "going to war against an army of bad guys."

Some manfiction may objectify women, but turnabout is fair play, and at least female characters no longer tend to be " barracuda debs in frilly negligees." Interested in sampling what manfiction has to offer? Try authors Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Richard Stark, and Lee Child. Each writes stories of rough guys with heart. And “Child's tough but humane Jack Reacher is the coolest continuing series character now on offer,” King writes.
(More novel stories.)

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