It's St Valentine's Day, so of course a romantic novelist will want to talk about love! It's something women talk about quite a lot, isn't it? But men don't talk about it quite so much.
This doesn't mean men don't think about love, of course. There's an interesting interview with RNA Rona Awards shortlisted author Michael Arditti on the link below, and Michael makes some interesting points about writing romantic fiction. I'm looking forward to reading his novel Jubilate, and seeing what he has to say.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/13/romantic-novel-of-the-year-shortlists?newsfeed=true
I feel both genders must have lots to tell us about relationships, but many male writers fight shy of writing about emotion. I'd like to read much more relationship-based fiction by men.
One of my favourite romantic novels by a man is David Lodge's brilliant and deservedly award-winning Nice Work, which I must have read half a dozen times. It's a thought-provoking read in which we meet a character who has no time for romantic love and one who falls head over heels with someone who is unsuitable in every way. One character is the MD of an engineering company and the other is a university lecturer in English Literature.
Guess which is the hero and which is the heroine? Well, that's easy, but this novel offers us all plenty of food for thought when it comes to making assumptions about falling in love.
Yay! Good for Arditti, who makes a very important point. That being, there are all sorts of issues being tackled in romantic fiction. Well done that man! :) x
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the new venture, Margaret. You're certainly off to a great start.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to meeting Michael Arditti at the RoNAs on 5th March. He sounds an interesting man.
Liz X