The Day Job has bumped my hours to full-time and this means I've got pretty much NO free time AT ALL for anything, and I've had to steal time from the writing career and the volunteer work and everything else.
So yes. I apologise for my blogly silence.
I've been robbing Peter to pay Paul. (Now, the Peter in my life is a really tall Army Sergeant who takes no nonsense. He would get on my case for how I'm burning the candle on both ends.) I've figuratively maxed out the Time credit card and someday soon it's gonna come back to bite me. Okay, enough with the cliches. I'm so busy I can't even come up with my own metaphors.
And yet...
AND YET...
I am squeezing bits and pieces of moments in for reading. We're all readers. We all know how reading is both relaxing and invigorating at the same time. Because I'm so busy, I need this two-birds-one-stone escape from the ol' grind. (Okay, I'll quit with the cliches.)
It doesn't help that the beautiful Baldivis Library has just opened and I can't stay away. (Ooh! Books! Shiny!)
I got a noir novel based on a true story--"Bury Me Deep" by Megan Abbott. Normally I don't read noir, but the cover was so evocative, I had to pick it up. (Just goes to show you what a great cover design can do).
Overall, I enjoyed the book and you can read my review on Goodreads. I've put another of her books on hold and will pick it up presently at the library.
It got me thinking. (Good books do that.) Why did I enjoy this book so much? What intrigued me? Why don't I read more noir?
When I reflected on that last question, I had a revelation, an epiphany, if you will.
Thus:
- I don't read much noir because the characters tend to dwell in deep, dark places, and they never leave.
- I have the same issue with most Literary fiction. The characters occupy the nadir of human existence and they either fail to realise they need to change and grow, or they fail to leave that Black Doghouse, despite their misguided efforts. This is depressing, especially for a Meritocratic Idealist who reads for Escapism.
- Novels are all about the characters. Even the plot-based ones. (More on this later, possibly next week.)
This has confirmed to me that I'm all about the HEA (Happily Ever After) or, in certain cases, making such an impact on the world it can't help but change. Eucatastrophe. (Doncha just love that word?)
EVERY character goes through darkness and despair. It's necessary for the tension of the book. If everything were light and bubbles, it would be one boring book.
My taste is that the characters don't remain there. I want them to get to the HEA or at least appear that they're gonna make it. I want them to be proactive in their fate. They've gotta do something, even if that something doesn't turn out the way they expected.
I want my books with characters making stuff happen, not just having stuff happen to them, or worse, happening around them. And if they are successful, all the better. HEA, The End.
So why am I all gushy over this noir?
- It takes place in 1931, at the beginning of the Great Depression, and the dead-dog-party end of the Roaring Twenties. Prohibition! Loose morals! Lost flappers! This is sufficiently different from my current lives to satisfy my need for Escapism.
- Despite everyone's spiral into darkness, pretty much all the characters (barring a couple) have redeeming features and intriguing quirks. Roundness is good.
- Plotty goodness. Okay, this was more character-driven than plot-driven, but there was plot, and there were characters trying to take control of their destinies to some degree. I can accept that.
- The ending had a sad wistfulness at the end of it, with a lost love flavour to it. I am a sucker for lost love.
So there you have it. I have learned that I can fall in love with a story that's outside my usual preferred genres, if it strikes the right chor-- hits the nail on th-- ticks all the box--.
Aw heck. I like something if it's got the right stuff.
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Her Grace needs a clichectomy.
Her Grace needs a clichectomy.
