We Need to Talk About Kevin author Lionel Shriver's new novel, The Post-Birthday World, has apparently been described as "the next step after chick lit." Funny that, because it sounds to me very much like a chick lit book that came out last year. See what you think.
The Post-Birthday World is about children's book illustrator Irina McGovern, who enjoys a quiet and settled life in London with her partner Lawrence. To their small circle of friends, their relationship is rock solid. Until the night Irina unaccountably finds herself dying to kiss another man: their old friend from South London, the stylish, extravagant, passionate top-ranking snooker player Ramsey Acton. With which true love is Irina better off? Should she stay or should she go? In two alternating, parallel stories, The Post-Birthday World follows Irina's life as it unfolds under the influence of these two drastically different yet equally honorable men.
Carry on over the cut for the chick lit version (can you guess what it is?).
Sarah Mlynowski's latest novel Me vs Me is a clever look at what happens to one woman
when her wish comes true and she's able to choose both paths that open
in front of her. Gabby Wolf isn't sure what she wants most: to marry
her devoted boyfriend, Cam, and stay in Arizona or move to New York for
her dream job, producing a popular news show. She wishes she could have
it both ways and the next thing she knows, she's living two lives,
going back and forth between planning her wedding to Cam in Arizona and
working at the fast-paced, exciting job in New York. Neither life is
perfect.
Aside from the fact that I don't think the words "stylish, extravagant and passionate" have ever before been followed by "snooker player", the similarities are startling, don't you think? And it's interesting that in the apparently "literary" novel, the heroine is choosing between two men, whereas in the chick lit novel she's choosing between a man and her dream job.
[Blurbs via Amazon.com]
