Thursday, June 25, 2009

Why I love romance (novels)....

(Hey, I have always (tragically) maintained I'm a 13 year old girl on the inside.)


The Birth of Romance Novels

The books effectively recreate the world of high school romance, when every nuance contained volumes. In grade twelve, there were girls who, simply by saying hello, could make me mute with joy, whose touch on my forearm was electric. There were always misunderstandings and misinterpretations and sexual dramas. Even the breakups had terrific appeal, those first forays into angry soliloquy. The chief attraction was its all-consuming aspect, that you felt so vivid and so adult. Meanwhile, the adults were settled in the suburbs, battling mortgages, complacent or murderous in their marriages. And that?s why so many Harlequin books end where they do, at the moment that all the drama and misunderstandings and the guilty/fulfilling sex are over. Because after that moment, you step into Updike territory, the land of ennui and bitter divorce.

3 comments:

arf said...

Romance novels are such fun. They're brain candy at its most fulfilling. There's humor and steaminess and complete disregard for reality.

The romance novel industry is going through a boomtime right now. Apparently even though book sales are down in general Romance as a genre is up. way up.

StephanieC said...

I know! I LOVE Them, which always surprises people... (How can a smart girl like you, like those trashy books... As though I'm betraying womankind!)

I keep thinking I need to write a romance novel... I've worked on several, but I always seem to run out of steam about 200 pages in.

arf said...

Most of them are less than 200 pages, or the ones that are more have large type.

There's nothing wrong with taking in some salt-water-taffy-reading for your brain vacations, even if those brain vacations are at home.