So, I told you I'm reading Julie and Julia. I looked at the reviews on amazon now that I am halfway through, and they are almost equally divided between people who love the book and people who hate the book and the author. These people hate the book and author because she uses too much profanity (oops, there goes *my* book deal), because she makes fun of Republicans, and because, well, they think she sounds like a not-very-nice person even when she's the one doing the writing about herself. They think she is whiny. They think she is mean.
Oh, god. Again, there goes my book deal, 'cause I think what these readers are processing as "whiny" is very similar to my own writing style. She'll rant about how annoying something or someone is and her subsequent urges to punch them in the head, but in a humorous way, and in a way that suggests she knows she is complaining, knows that this problem *isn't* the most horrible thing that ever happened to anyone, has some self-awareness. It's just a description of her own crankiness, played for laughs. If the reading public considers that whining, well, they better not drop by this blog. Just sayin'.
On the other hand? I can see "mean." She really is not very nice to her long-suffering husband in the book, but her portrayal of marriage is unfortunately one I see every freaking day in real life. People *are* mean as shit to their spouses. People speak to their husbands and wives in ways they would never speak to a friend or a stranger. People belittle their spouses to, and in front of, other people constantly. The lack of basic respect many married people treat each other with is stunning. (If you are me, and have tried hard for the past fifteen years to not be that person.) So while I'm reading her book and noticing she is kinda mean to her husband in it, it doesn't strike me as terribly out of the ordinary.
But then, while I am on amazon, I decide to see what else she's written. The second book is also autobiographical. It's all about how she cheats on her husband. Oh. I guess there was trouble in paradise after all!
xoxo
2 comments:
The reviews tell me a lot about the Amazon reviewing audience...and Julie. Geez, doesn't everybody know by now that you need to write about 30 positive Amazon reviews of yourself, and have friends/relations/outlaws write another 30 each? What, she got a movie deal and suddenly she doesn't need to stoop? Feh!
If I ever get a book published, I expect all of you to do your thirty. A little typing and lying never hurt anyone!
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