I’ve just gotten done reading a paperback book. Because the author seems like a nice person I don’t want to tell you her name OR the name of her book. But it is the kind of novel that gives me hope whenever I think no one will publish my work. If they’ve published this thing I’ve just finished then someone somewhere is gullible enough to buy my manuscript(s).
The thing about this particular piece of pulp is that the author has clearly based the character on herself. That’s not a bad thing, and authors do it all the time. What is bad is that not a chapter went by throughout the entire thing without some ancillary character praising the brains, beauty, charm, wit, demeanor and job skills of the heroine. Seriously random encounters are peppered with admiration for the lead character. Suspects being interviewed say things like “I was hoping you’d be the one to interview me. I think you are the most beautiful lawyer in the world.” The most egregious scene involves a suspect actually touching her lips to “drink in her exquisite sensual beauty.” He says this outloud in the middle of a crowded waiting room in front of a dozen of his clients.
I sometimes wonder about other people’s interior lives. I know mine is peppered liberally with self-doubt and angst and I wonder if others are the same way. As for this author I guess she’s either exercising her self-doubt by having her heroine be the perfected image of herself or she really is perfect.
Either way, I don’t think I’ll read another one of her books.
