Both of these books are getting criticism based on their author or subjects being young, attractive and rich. It’s possible that people are reading them for that reason, but I don’t know why that should be a surprise. People read books about the middle class, the upper class, the destitute and marginalized, drug addicts, the homeless, about marriage, divorce, serial killers, the mob, the various ways the world might end, books by authors who are from and/or write about other cultures. There are elderly middle-class men who swear by John Updike, and young white women who swoon for Toni Morrison. Everyone either wants to read about himself, or doesn’t. Why do publishers salivate over young, attractive authors (and turn them into young, attractive, rich authors)? Opinions vary: Sarah Weinman. Last Sunday's fashion piece, It's Like Nothing, Really, in the New York Times didn't help. (Thanks to Cheryl for that link.)
Why a book club junkie age 11? The neighborhood we lived in didn’t have bookstores, just one stationery store that carried Kurt Vonnegut paperbacks. (I’m rereading Welcome to the Monkey House now.)
Two of my favorite people:
Read an excerpt from A Man Without a Country.
3 comments:
Point taken. Readers come in all income brackets and ethnicities. As a writer living in the desert southwest, however, it's endlessly discouraging to witness the parade of east coast writers who are published and published and published as if nobody who lives west of the Mississippi river can put two sentences together that would get the same amount of attention. Do east coast publishers think we're all cowgirls with nothing interesting to say? I have wondered over this coastal prejudice all of my writing life. To try and counteract it, I buy as many books by west coast authors as I can possibly afford. Hasn't seemed to make even a dent.
Not to mention the landlocked writers who flock to NY because they feel it's the only way to get noticed.
I write with a very strong midwestern/country flair. That is what I know and live. I couldn't do anything else. We'll have to see if there is a market for it.
Nice blog!
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