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How Recession Could Kill Chick Lit

Fluffy novels 'must respond to a more sober age'

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 11, 2009 2:27 PM CDT
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(Newser) – The world of chick lit is populated with material concerns and hefty price tags—but in today’s battered economy, such themes may no longer resonate, writes author Sarah Bilston for DoubleX. Her latest book's “cheery consumerism and aimless career-dithering were clearly out of touch in a world of mortgage defaulting, pink slips, and repossessed homes.” The UK version was already on shelves, but not so the US edition: So "in a single mad month I slashed and burned," as other writers must for the genre to survive.

“Rereading my novel in its pretty purple-and-blue 2008 UK cover, I knew I had to save it from its casual pre-recession excess,” Bilston notes. Chats about yachts were dropped in favor of characters “nervously joking about their pallid 401(k)s while jostling to show they saw the crash coming.” “Financial uncertainty”—long a novelistic plot-mover—means books about “heroines who must take on the world, not just themselves."

Sophie Kinsella's chick-lit novel Confessions of a Shopaholic.
Sophie Kinsella's chick-lit novel "Confessions of a Shopaholic."   (Amazon)
Bilston revised Sleepless Nights for the recession.
Bilston revised "Sleepless Nights" for the recession.   (Amazon)
A big stack of chick lit.
A big stack of chick lit.   (©Flirty Kitty)
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Because the external circumstances were steadily sunny, writers looked mostly inside their characters for the energy to drive and motivate plot. But now, those of us who write women’s fiction for mass consumption must inevitably look outward again. -

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 3 comments
Alexandria
Aug 11, 2009 10:28 AM CDT
Good. Most of those books are terrible
brawne
Aug 11, 2009 10:27 AM CDT
Yep. That shallow. Thank goodness that for every woman craving a Hermes bag, there is an equally shallow man buying it. I think it's called equality. That fine Italian leather equals sex is only important to the women who love leather and the men who depend on money instead of personality. We are all safe.
my-name-here
Aug 11, 2009 9:17 AM CDT
Come on! "Chic lit" being about unneeded and excessive materialism with hefty price tags? How shallow do they think real women are?

 
literature • publishing • chick lit • book • Confessions of a Shopaholic • women's issues

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