Some Book Comparisons

I've been meaning to post about this for a while, but was so busy finishing up work in the city. I'm finally home for a bit now before heading back down to school, so I'm finally able to get around to some more blogging!

About a month ago, I read these two books in a row:

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

I picked up Firefly Lane earlier in the spring on a whim and had been meaning to read it all summer. I am a big Jennifer Weiner fan (she's part of my upper-echelon of chic-lit, natch) and bought her new book the day it came out.

First of all, I did NOT like Firefly Lane. I thought it read like a romance novel; loosely defined characters, cheesey love affairs and relationships, and a soap-opera ending. I guess I should have known by the cover, but the description initially drew me in; I love stories about female relationships overtime. To me it sounded like one of my favorite novels, Martha Moody's Best Friends, which I posted about here, but it came nowhere close. I guess this would be fine if you're looking for something that doesn't make you think, but for me it was too unrealistic and melodramatic.

On to the next.

Best Friends Forever is also about a lifelong friendship between two women. But it involves a Thelma and Louise style trip and a mystery plot. Some of Weiner's other novels have touched on the mystery genre as well, and I think she does a good job keeping you reading while still delivering on the books characters and their interests.

The reason I'm writing about these two novels together is that they contain some uncanny

parallels. I'll list a few off the top of my head.

1. Both are stories about a misfit-type girl whose self-esteem is elevated by a "cool girl" who moves in across the street.

2. Both of the "cool girls" in each story grow up to become famous newscasters.

3. Both have plots involving cancer and the heartache surrounding coping with such a disease.

And those are just what I can remember. Still, I think those are pretty major plot and character points. That being said, Best Friends Forever is by far the superior novel. While its not any harder to read and still wholly delivers on the chick-lit beach book front, its characters are real, nuanced and relatable. Weiner is a terrific writer, one who is recognized for her literary talent beyond chick-lit circles. I recommend all of her books, which you can find here. I've read them all and the only one that disappointed was Certain Girls, her most recent before Best Friends Forever, but I think I just wasn't in the right frame of mind when I picked it up. It's now available in paperback.

The other book comparison that I just want to briefly mention are the similarities between J. Courtney Sullivan's Commencement, which I posted about earlier in the summer here, and Meg Wolizter's The Wife. I picked up The Wife because I'd heard really good things about the author and because I'm a sucker for books about books. The premise of the story involves a young woman at Smith College in the late 1950s who has an affair with her married professor and eventually ends up marrying; the book illustrates vingettes of their life together as he becomes a famous author and she supports him along the way. The book is satirical in many ways, and Wolitzer's commentary is cheeky and humorous; she even throws in

a surprise ending. The similarity between

these two books is pretty obvious, but being that both authors are graduates of Smith College and write about undergraduates having affairs with their professors (both girls are blonde and

relatively naive, trying to impress their professors with their writerly chops before falling in love) while the professors are

young-ish, dashing, and the seductor in

each situation. Perhaps this commonality exists because Smith is a women's college so there are few other choices of men on campus, but I can't help feeling that Sullivan read Wolitzer. I hope she has. Wolitzer is a formidable writer worth paying attention to... just like Joan from The Wife.

Phew, long post from me! Back to more leisurely Saturday reading :)

Cheers,

ACL