« Whatever happened to Jezebel Bright? | Main | THURSDAY TRAILBLAZER: Grace Metalious »

March 13, 2008 11:43 AM

GUEST BLOG: Miss Couturable

I discovered 17-year-old budding fashionista Noel's wonderful blog when she wrote a post about chick lit. I asked her to expand on it for Trashionista readers. Enjoy!  

‘Don’t you see? That Birkin gave her a reason to live! You simply cannot kill yourself with you’re that close [to being first on the waiting list for the Birkin]…it’s just not an option.’ […] Elisa looked positively radiant from her retelling of the story, as though it had inspired her to live her own life to the fullest. I thanked her for educating me in the ways of the Birkin and wondered what, exactly, I had gotten myself into.”

As I finished this passage from Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger (author of The Devil Wears Prada), I also wondered what I had gotten myself into. The formula for this novel is pervasive among other bestseller works of chick lit, from The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus to Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes: An intelligent and gorgeous girl lands herself in a career that is completely unfulfilling, canoodles with dozens of shallow metrosexual men before she meets her handsome down-to-earth soulmate, and finally discovers and gets what she truly wants in life (which luckily for her always includes great sex with her rugged soulmate).

The formula is predictable – and yet, I’m enraptured by every single novel that these glamorous socialite authors churn out. I used to think chick lit was extremely shallow literature, but I’ve discovered that many of the books in the chick lit genre are cleverly written social satires. Sometimes I wonder if in a century from now, high school and college English classes would be teaching 21st century social satire with excerpts from works by Candace Bushnell or Sophie Kinsella. Chick lit authors present a not-too-exaggerated view of our modern materialistic world and balance it with fairy tale devices to please our hearts.

Admit it, you’re fascinated by the idea that fashion editors are 4-inch stiletto glamazons who dedicate half their lives to making the “little people” so miserable and by the crazy antics of New York City socialites who celebrate their divorces in Pucci swimsuits on “divorce honeymoons”. You’re also emotionally attached to the fabulous protagonist, who is just as glamorous as her shallow counterparts. You’re probably also jealous that the protagonist’s soulmate also happens to be your dream guy.

Chick lit authors know there is truth within the slight exaggerations that they make – they portray the publicist that is dressed to the nines and the Upper East Side mom with the Chanel clutch as shallow products of American frivolity that we openly scoff at – but will guiltily digest the next novel for. Even if all of us could scrutinize society so clearly and precisely as Sophie Kinsella or Plum Sykes could, most of us still couldn’t make these accounts as entertaining to read as they do.

Ever since Noel was 6-years-old, she's been obsessed with the novel, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett -- and she still believes that every girl is a princess, no matter if she's in rags or the latest Chanel minidress. She loves fashion and cannot imagine life without costume, and hopes to become the editor-in-chief of a respectable and innovative fashion magazine someday. She's obsessed with chick lit and dreams of writing her own novel in the future -- but right now she just wants to maintain an A in her Honors American Literature class.

Came straight to this page? Visit www.trashionista.com for more female fiction news, reviews and interviews.

Posted by Keris on March 13, 2008 in Guest blogs | Permalink

Comments