Jonathan Franzen recently came out with his new novel "Freedom" to much attention.
This week, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner claimed that Franzen was getting "over coverage" for the novel, and that it's unfair male authors get so much more attention than female authors.
First off, these two complaining that they don't get enough coverage is laughable.
Weiner is a self-proclaimed chick lit writer. Chick lit doesn't get attention from the New York Times Book Review the same way that McDonald's doesn't get attention from Food and Wine magazine.
If you're writing for the paychecks, that's fine. But don't get upset and pull the "it's because I'm a girl" card just because you can't have artistic integrity on top of the pile of money you're sleeping on.
Picoult is a bit trickier, but only because she actually believes she's writing Nobel Prize worthy material. If you follow her on Twitter (as I do) you can tell that she believes she's underrated.
Forget that her books are trumped up Lifetime movies--some of them have even been MADE into Lifetime movies. She wants acclaim, not just profit.
Sorry Ms. Picoult, it's not happening, and not because you're a woman.
Franzen is getting attention because the last book he wrote was The Corrections, and it was considered a masterpiece. Whether or not this is true, it's clear that he waited a long time to come up with a worthy follow-up to the book.
Picoult, on the hand, pumps out a book a year.
I always have a distrust for any novelist who can push out book after book, year after year, and claim the quality is A+ every single time.
Picoult and Weiner want commercial fiction reviewed in the New York Times Book Review. Well then, write a book that's worthy of being in the New York Times Book Review.
As for the woman card, too many women these days are writing about mid-life crisis, warm bubble baths, and cheating husbands.
At this point, the market has been inundated with "the woman experience."
I don't care about the woman experience the same way I don't care about the male experience.
I care about stories. Tell me a good story with fleshed out characters who do more than whine about their broken marriage or their mother's neglect or their father's alcoholism.
Tell me something I haven't heard before, and I'll read it. Hell, I'll buy two copies and give them to my friends.
Zadie Smith is a fantastic example of this. She brings a woman's perspective to a strong story with real characters, and out of the three fiction books she's written, two have been chosen as the Best Book of the Year by Entertainment Weekly.
No, she's not getting movies produced of her work (aside from the distinction of having her debut novel being adapted by Masterpiece Theater) but she does have artistic acclaim.
And she's very much a woman.
Maybe Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner need to read her books, read their own, and then reflect on whether the problem lies with the New York Times...or them.
This week, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner claimed that Franzen was getting "over coverage" for the novel, and that it's unfair male authors get so much more attention than female authors.
First off, these two complaining that they don't get enough coverage is laughable.
Weiner is a self-proclaimed chick lit writer. Chick lit doesn't get attention from the New York Times Book Review the same way that McDonald's doesn't get attention from Food and Wine magazine.
If you're writing for the paychecks, that's fine. But don't get upset and pull the "it's because I'm a girl" card just because you can't have artistic integrity on top of the pile of money you're sleeping on.
Picoult is a bit trickier, but only because she actually believes she's writing Nobel Prize worthy material. If you follow her on Twitter (as I do) you can tell that she believes she's underrated.
Forget that her books are trumped up Lifetime movies--some of them have even been MADE into Lifetime movies. She wants acclaim, not just profit.
Sorry Ms. Picoult, it's not happening, and not because you're a woman.
Franzen is getting attention because the last book he wrote was The Corrections, and it was considered a masterpiece. Whether or not this is true, it's clear that he waited a long time to come up with a worthy follow-up to the book.
Picoult, on the hand, pumps out a book a year.
I always have a distrust for any novelist who can push out book after book, year after year, and claim the quality is A+ every single time.
Picoult and Weiner want commercial fiction reviewed in the New York Times Book Review. Well then, write a book that's worthy of being in the New York Times Book Review.
As for the woman card, too many women these days are writing about mid-life crisis, warm bubble baths, and cheating husbands.
At this point, the market has been inundated with "the woman experience."
I don't care about the woman experience the same way I don't care about the male experience.
I care about stories. Tell me a good story with fleshed out characters who do more than whine about their broken marriage or their mother's neglect or their father's alcoholism.
Tell me something I haven't heard before, and I'll read it. Hell, I'll buy two copies and give them to my friends.
Zadie Smith is a fantastic example of this. She brings a woman's perspective to a strong story with real characters, and out of the three fiction books she's written, two have been chosen as the Best Book of the Year by Entertainment Weekly.
No, she's not getting movies produced of her work (aside from the distinction of having her debut novel being adapted by Masterpiece Theater) but she does have artistic acclaim.
And she's very much a woman.
Maybe Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner need to read her books, read their own, and then reflect on whether the problem lies with the New York Times...or them.
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