CHICK LIT. PART - 2

This is too early in the morning for any erudition. I'm just out of bed and sitting here in my shorts without the benefit of a bath or a shave. Anyway, I just wanted to clarify for Lingo Slinger who said "I always though Chick-Lit was more lighthearted reading that was primarily of interest to a female audience... "

That's the thing about labels. Rachel's Holiday is marketed for the Chick Lit./Young Female audience with its frivolous cover illustration, and the quote from the Sunday Times review prominent on the front "A gloriously funny book". And I think it's fair to say that Marian Keyes would not herself spurn the Chick Lit label, after all it helps to sell the book. It is a funny book. There are laugh out loud moments in it and the quirkiness of the Irish dialogue is a constant entertainment throughout. And, of course, there are a lot of girlish references to boyfriends, hair, make-up, and clothes which makes it very accessible to a certain age and gender. That does not detract a whit from its central virtue. It's a good story. And that is important to me, and the fact that I am a fifty six year old man is neither here nor there. Except that the marketing types would exclude me from this book by deflecting my glance on the bookshop shelves toward a more 'manly' or 'serious' cover illustration, and that is a disservice to me and to the writer.

All this serves to underline that you can't judge a book by its cover, and we should all be wary of marketing.