Posted on: Tuesday, November 2, 2004

ABOUT WOMEN
Chick lit has more than mere fluff

By Tanya Bricking Leach
Advertiser Staff Writer

An old friend asked the other day what good books I've been reading lately.

I was almost embarrassed to tell him I think I've become a "chick lit" addict.

It is my guilty pleasure as the daughter of an English teacher with highbrow tastes to read things those with a preference for literary giants might mock.

Except for "The 9/11 Report" and books like "The Da Vinci Code," and "Life of Pi," I've been consumed by page-turners such as Nora Ephron's oldie-but-goodie "Heartburn" (the revenge novel that followed her divorce from Carl Bernstein) and "Blue Shoe" (a relationships novel by Anne Lamott, one of my favorite writers).

I will even go in bookstores and judge books by their covers, buying things I vaguely remember hearing about. I bought both "Bee Season" and "The Secret Life of Bees" because I couldn't recall which was supposed to be good. I liked them both, but discovered these are not good books to pass along to my husband in Afghanistan. My "chick lit" selections sent to the field have gone over about as well as the girly foot scrub I mailed him.

My friend who wanted to know what I've been reading now wants to know why today's woman finds "chick lit" so appealing.

Some might call it forgettable "froth," but this type of literature has become big business as a broadly defined marketing genre because the plots resonate with women. Love and childbirth are just as valid to women as male angst and sports analogies are to men.

I think it's the same reason I will get sucked into going to see the next "Bridget Jones" movie and why made-for-TV chick lit like "Desperate Housewives" is the new favorite show among my gal pals.

The tawdry factor aside, women can identify with universal truths played out in the choices these characters make about career, family and sex. In the best examples of this style, writing can be satirical and funny, witty and warm. And what's not to like about books and shows in which the main characters are women?

Not that all chick lit is great, but it seems anything written by a woman and under-read by men these days is being pushed into that category. Might as well display it beside Norah Jones albums and scare all the men away.

In defense of the genre, there's no need to dismiss it all as formulaic fluff. Well-educated people are not above reading this sort of work. It's been evolving since authors such as Charlotte Bronte ("Jane Eyre") and Jane Austen ("Pride and Prejudice") broached the same subjects.

Critics have called today's version of these classics "Jane Austen Lite."

I guess I'm OK with a little light reading. If it strikes a chord and makes me laugh, it's worth reading to me — even if it means I don't have time to get to all of the literary classics first.

Tanya Bricking Leach writes about relationships. Reach her at 525-8026 or tleach@honoluluadvertiser.com.