What Do Smart Women Miss in "Women's" Fiction?

A long time ago, in a third world country, I briefly dated a young man. We could barely communicate, but whenever I raised an arm in my sleeveless dress he would say, "Something missing." It took me a while, but finally I got it: I had shaved.

Oddly, I'm reminded of that incident when I consider how a lot of the fiction marketed to women is missing something. For me, it's the dark qualities. Yes, sometimes being entertained is quite enough, but for me, the best fiction reflects real life back at us and makes us think. And think hard--not just empathize and identify.

Happily, I recently discovered the novels of Binnie Kirshenbaum. Her latest is The Scenic Route, in which a divorced woman and a married man go on a European road trip and share stories. Her earliest, On Mermaid Avenue, is lighter fare, but still with an undertone of cold reality. in An Almost Perfect Moment Kirshenbaum danced skillfully on the border between laughter and poignancy.

Really good novels, however dark or serious, can be uplifting. They--Kirshenbaum's, in fact--remind me of the existential loneliness we all share. What more can anyone ask of a book than to allow us to connect briefly with another intelligent human? And to make us laugh while we read?

I interviewed Kirshenbaum about such questions.

HOW CHICK-LIT FAILS

Q: With recent trends in women's fiction, even with a lot of the supposedly more serious stuff, publishers aim to reach the broadest batch of readers possible. Has this aspect of publishing changed since you began writing? And what about what you've called "reading as self-help" rather than to know yourself? Do you grit your teeth over it, or have you found a sort of serenity anyway? After all, you do seem to get published well and regularly, despite your not-so-upbeat themes.

Reading as self-help disturbs me far more than the chick-lit; the chick-lit is intended to be entertainment. Light reading for easy pleasure is neither new nor disturbing (to me).

Reading literature for self-help, or only positive recognition/reflection of self, or for inspiration--that pains me. It defeats the intent of literature. It dumbs it down. It's dishonest. And it seems to be the predominant way people now read. The idea of "identifying with the main character" has done a one-eighty. Instead of trying to understand the character or what it would feel like to be him/her, the wide audience seems to want the main character to be just like the reader, to have shared experiences, beliefs and values. To that end, the characters should be likable and admirable, a reflection of self but only in a good light.

I plead with my publishers to forget about going for the wide audience for me. It backfires. But they do it anyway. This last time, I found the whole popular appeal approach to be terribly hurtful to my . . . I don't know what to call it . . . my soul, my spirit. It made me wish I could be the sort of person who writes but doesn't care about getting published. But I am not as enlightened a being as all that.

Q: Your typical sorta-Jewish theme is one that intrigues me. I totally relate. I wonder if "being Jewish" will mean the same once the hardliners in Israel succeed in their current goal of allowing hardly anyone to claim true Jew status. Can you elaborate on the outsider theme that having a semi-Jewish character exemplifies?

Just for the record, I don't believe the hardliners in Israel, or here, can claim Jewish status themselves. The way I see it, there is nothing Jewish about them. I believe that their beliefs and behaviors are antithetical to Jewish life. And the hypocrisy. . . .

There's that line, "I'm a Jew because Hitler said I was a Jew." There's something to that. I am not observant and I was raised even less observant. But I am Jewish because... I am. The whole question as to whether it's a religion or a race or a culture is too complicated for me, but I know I feel a connection to the tribe.

I do not, however, consider myself to be a Jewish writer. The ghettoizing of literature causes me as much despair as the self-help thing. I subscribe to the universality of art. I consider myself to be an American writer because I write in American (as opposed to the King's English) but not a Jewish writer, not a woman writer, definitely not a Jewish woman writer. There are certain Jewish customs and rituals I like because I see purpose to them, and a kind of ancient beauty.

WRITING PROCESS

Q:

You have said voice and character come to you before story or plot. Elaborate a bit?

Q:

I'm not so much interested, as a writer and as a reader, in "what happens" as I am in "what happens to these people." The characters come because I'm thinking about them, or listening to them. The plot (such as I have plots--mine are pretty slim) comes from the character. Another person in the same predicament would make for an entirely different story. Voice--I love words, the sounds of them, the music they can make. The Voice is the character narrating.

Q: Your sex scenes, you've said, are often misconstrued, and should be read metaphorically.

One thing about my sex scenes--they rarely are sex scenes, as such. I'm really not big on describing the acts. Or even the bodies in any kind of graphic detail. But I write about people having sex. Sometimes, they have sex a lot. Because I write about women having sex in scenes that are unromantic or comic, it's read as something raw, brazen, smutty. Sex is communication, and also something like truth serum. How people engage sexually is likely to reveal as much, if not more, about who they are. And sex is one of the great motivational forces in life.

Q: There's nothing like a good smart dark funny book with hardly any redemption. Have you ever changed an ending to help a book sell?

No. Never. It's not that I don't want my books to sell, but there no way I would to that end. I need to feel good about what I write. Or at least feel I wrote the book I wanted to write. If I were going to write with sales as the impetus, I'd be writing about vampires. But that's not what I want to do.

Q: You have particular views on adultery. I think it may be impossible to separate physical from emotional affairs. Care to comment?

My characters' views are not necessarily my views, but I don't think adultery is the worst thing ever. Whose crimes were worse: Bill Clinton's or George Bush's? Which one would you rather be married to? We put far too much pressure on our marriages, expecting our spouse to be everything to us. No one person can fill all our needs. Do we then say those needs are not important to us? What if they are? As a society, we are terribly self-righteous and judgmental. Especially about sex.

Yes, betrayal causes terrible jealousy and pain. We should never want to hurt anyone. In all of life, we should aim to cause as little pain as possible. But pain takes many forms and not all betrayals are equal.

Q. Depression is a common topic among writers. I take it you've come to some accommodation with yours and you've found meds that allow you to be creative and function with some ease?

Yes and no and yes and no. My depression and I are in a constant struggle. Meds help a great deal, but not always. But to be creative and to function with some ease--no.

Q: When you're writing, do you enter a flow state where time seems to stop?

Sometimes I lose track of time, but mostly that happens when I get absorbed with something like reading the dictionary or trolling on eBay.

(c) 2010 by Susan K. Perry