Books

Sit down with a good book

Although the holidays might now be a distant memory, the good news is that there’s still plenty of good reading out there. Compiled by Renée Lang.

Chick lit or just a damn good read?

B Y RENÉE LANG

As I write, Catherine Robertson is in town (along with fellow author Sue Copsey) to celebrate Library Lovers’ Day on 13 and 14 February. No stranger to Nelson, Catherine was a frequent visitor during her childhood and then again, when she and her husband had a young family and would come from Wellington to stay with their “mad but broke American hippy friends” who back in the day rented a marvellous old villa on the port hills. Fast forward around 15 years to 2015 and her link with our city was appropriately cemented when her fourth novel, The Hiding Places, won the Nelson Libraries Award for New Zealand Fiction. “I was presented with a fantastic Royce McGlashen trophy,” she recalls, “and it was such a thrill.”

Ask Catherine Robertson how she feels about the genre known as chick lit along with the fact that many readers who identify as feminists choose not to read it and her response is fast and fierce. “We have to start by looking at what women’s fiction used to be, in the 1980s especially, when there was a lot more subversion and self-determining characters in the work.” She cites Joanna Trollope, Mary Wesley, Barbara Trapido and Elizabeth Jane Howard as prime examples. “And then Bridget Jones’s Diary came along. I think it was a genuine comedic masterpiece. She’s never written anything that good again.”

It’s her view that Bridget Jones started a trend for “slightly ditzy heroines and light, amusing books”. Thus the ‘chick lit’ genre was born, which quickly led to an onslaught of, says Catherine, “fluffy, trivial and not particularly well written books”. She then comes up with a heavy metal analogy, citing that Lez Zeppelin spawned a whole bunch of really bad heavy metal bands: “The original influence is awesome, but what comes out of it gets so diluted.”

When she started writing, she wanted to write funny books, largely because all the writers she admired at the time were humorous writers, whether they were non-fiction or fiction. “I also liked books about relationships because they say a lot about who we are, but as soon as you write a funny book about a romantic relationship it’s categorised as ‘chick lit’. If I’d been more alert to the fact that I was going to be pigeon-holed or marketed as a chick lit writer I probably wouldn’t have written those books.” Her latest book, What You Wish For (2019), is a sequel to the very successful Gabriel’s Bay (2018).

Olive, Again

Elizabeth Strout

Available now, $34.99 Penguin Random House

Back in 2008 Olive Kitteridge was a publishing sensation. Then it became the basis of a wonderful HBO television miniseries. Now fans of the ‘prickly, wry, resistant to change yet ruthlessly honest and deeply empathetic’ main character will be delighted to pick up on the next decade of Olive’s life.

Adults

Emma Jane Unsworth

Available now, $32.99 HarperCollins

Digital addiction. Yes, it’s a thing and 30-something Jenny has it bad. Social media is what she lives for – even though on one occasion her phone actually gives her a black eye when she falls asleep while gazing up at it. And although it’s a witty story, it does also lay bare the consequences of what can be a very unhealthy relationship.

Wife After Wife

Olivia Hayfield

Available now, $34.99 Hachette New Zealand

It’s not apparent from the cover but this modern-day tale of glamour and serial monogamy is loosely based on the most infamous historical playboy of them all, Henry VIII. The first clue is in his name and the next is the number of women who accept the opportunity to become Mrs Rose.

When a disability makes even everyday activities a struggle imagine what it must feel like out here.

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