| Chick lit is everywhere these days. With
the popularity of Helen Fielding's Bridget
Jones's Diary and Melissa Bank's The
Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, a whole
new genre has emerged. TV shows such as Sex
and the City and the late Ally McBeal
are cited as examples of the cheeky spirit of
this genre. Even romance heavyweight Harlequin
has jumped on the bandwagon with the Red Dress
Ink line, launched in November 2001.
But what exactly is chick lit?
Chick lit shares many of the same qualities as
popular contemporary romance. In fact, some chick
lit has been penned by authors with dozens of
romance novels under their belts. Each chick lit
story centres around a young, single woman trying
to establish a career, often in the big city,
and looking for Mr. Right (or at least Mr. Right-Now).
Unlike many romances, however, chick lit stories
are often written in the first person and don't
necessarily have a then-we-got-married-and-lived-happily-ever-after
ending. While a chick lit heroine usually does
get her man in the end, there's no guarantee that
the relationship will lead to "marriage then
a baby in the baby carriage."
Chick lit contains elements of realism sometimes
hard to find in traditional romances—chick
lit heroines regularly get drunk, swear, talk
to their friends about sex (often in graphic detail),
worry about broken condoms and STD's, have multiple
sex partners in the course of the novel, and deal
with uncomfortable issues such as Mr. Right's
infidelity or parents with active sex lives. Much
of the appeal of the chick lit books comes through
the humour evident in the strong voices of the
narrators as they cope with all life throws at
them.
Not that the emergence of chick lit has been
without controversy. Some diehard romance fans
dislike it because of the uncertain endings, while
snooty literary types have dismissed it as light,
frivolous, and forgettable. Regardless, the genre
is popular and won't be disappearing anytime soon.
I'm not about to give up my trusty romances—I
love them as much as ever—but when I want
something a little bit different, I'll reach for
some chick lit.
If you're new to chick lit, give the following
authors a try:
- Melissa Bank (The Girls' Guide to Hunting
and Fishing)
- Jenny
Colgan (Amanda's Wedding, Talking to
Addison)
- Helen Fielding (Bridget Jones's Diary,
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason)
- Jane Green (Bookends, Mr. Maybe, Jemima
J: A Novel About Ugly Ducklings and Swans)
- Wendy Holden (Simply Divine, Bad Heir
Day, Farm Fatale: A Comedy of Country Manors)
- Marian
Keyes (Angels, Rachel's Holiday, Lucy
Sullivan Is Getting Married)
- Sophie Kinsella (Confessions of a Shopaholic,
Shopaholic Takes Manhattan)
- Anna
Maxted (Getting Over It, Running in
Heels)
- Jennifer
Weiner (Good in Bed, In Her Shoes)
- Isabel
Wolff (The Trials of Tiffany Trott,
Making Minty Malone, Out of the Blue)
Sheri Radford is a member of GVC.
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