Multiple copies were stacked on their sides, spine out in the campus bookstore so I was caught completely unaware when I pulled that required graduate text from the shelf to add to my increasingly expensive basket of necessaries. As I slid the book from the top of the stack into my carrier, I saw the front cover. "There must be some [insert expletive] mistake," I thought to myself. There was a suburban mom type seated upon floral, her image framed by floral curtains, a stuffed animal reclined in the background, and she was reading a Harlequin type romance. The book was
Reading the Romance by Janice Radway, and its contents, replete with examinations of signifieds and signifiers within the genre, proved much more enlightening (although somewhat limited) than I initially imagined.
Reading the Romance proved an excellent jumping off point in that class into what would become some favorite reads including Ann Radcliffe gothic novels and the gentle and amusing satire of Northanger Abbey, my favorite Austen. Had not thought about the book in years though until I opened Jane Hamilton's
Laura Rider's Masterpiece this past weekend, and saw her acknowledgment of the book. Took a second look at the campy fun on the dust jacket, and scratched my head a little. Jane Hamilton, right? Author of
A Map of the World and
The Book of Ruth? But the synopsis made me laugh, and this is a slim 214 page read, and I keep saying I crave a little light summer reading right now so...
This book is extremely funny, occasionally dark, and successfully tweaks the cheeks of both the camps that I simplistically presented above - the reader or writer of the pulp romance novel and the educated reader who spurns such material as beneath them.
Laura and Charlie Ryder own and run a picturesque nursery, but Laura secretly yearns to be a writer instead of the sensible counterpart to a dreamer husband. However, Laura seems to equate writing with typing, and sees no reason why she cannot become a successful novelist because she already crafts some snappy emails and a successful company newsletter. Straight out of Radway, Laura imagines her desired life thus:
"In her vision, there was usually a cup of tea on the table, and a burning cigarette in a flowered ashtray, not that she had ever really smoked. How could she explain how comforting this abiding image was to her? She saw herself being still and thinking. That was it; that was the fantasy. Although she did not know anyone that was a reader, although she'd spent her childhood watching television, and now Nick at Nite was often on until midnight in the Rider house, Laura wanted, in a dress that came to her ankles and in robin's-egg-blue high-heeled leather Mary Janes, to be an author."
Laura's imagination attaches itself to a public radio host named Jenna Faroli who she describes as all she aspires to be - an intellectual with range, someone who "understood that there was no such thing as happiness in the middle of the narrative. Narrative, as a matter of fact was a word that Laura had learned from the great JF." When Laura finally meets her hero, she wants desperately to impress Jenna by telling the talk show host of all her efforts to improve herself, her opinions of great literature.
"Holden Caulfield would have been fine on Prozac, and ditto for the Professor in his dusty old house, in the dreary Willa Cather novel that she had not been able to finish."
When Charlie meets Jenna by chance, and charms her with his narrative skills as he presents his alien encounter story to her, Laura finally sees her chance to make the personal connection with Jenna that she craves. She helps Charlie write his increasingly intimate emails to Jenna (unbeknownst to Jenna), licensing her husband to take up this affair to inform her writing experiment. Communication (both written and physical) eventually runs haywire and challenges all stereotypes and archetypes. But that all important narrative thread stays taut and intact. I just can't tell you any more. You really need to experience all the fun and laughs for yourself.
One more amusing part I enjoyed:
(about Jenna's husband)
"She liked to tell her friends, and on occasion her radio audience, how frightened Frank became if there wasn't printed matter near his person. Their car had once broken down, and for some unexplained - perhaps paranormal - reason, they'd had no reading material for the two hours they'd had to wait for rescue. Frank had almost gone mad. There had not even been the Saab manual. He sweated and he paced, reciting all the soliloquies that were his set pieces, roving through Othello, Lear, Merchant, Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Hamlet and a few sonnets as well."
Will Laura successfully capture the story of Every Woman? What will Jenna sacrifice intellectually in embracing romantic love, a love that exists outside reason? Equal opportunity mockery here. Enjoyed this so much I want to give someone my copy. Comment her if you would like to read it, and I will pull a winner Wednesday night. Usual method, will ship anywhere.
Note: Congrats to Sandy who wins the book!
