In defense of chick lit: Jennifer Weiner

There is a negative stigma attached to being a writer of chick lit. A decision made by many authors that chick lit is a lesser art form than other writing. Curtis Sittenfeld, the author of Prep and The Man of My Dreams has argued she is not a chick lit author, even though her novels deal with young women coming into their own in exactly the same way chick lit heroines come into their own, by searching inside and outside themselves while defining how they want to portray themselves to the outside world.

Loise Doughty, in “A Writer’s Year,” has this to say about chick lit:

Funnily enough, I also write novels. They are not romances. They are not chick lit (a genre I despise because the majority of it is romance with designer labels, swearing and casual sex).

So, she writes novels that are somehow serious because they don’t involve designer labels, swearing, and casual sex? I’d never heard of Doughty before I read her article, but now I have to read her novels just to keep her at her word. No romances, designer clothes, or casual sex for her. Or swearing. I suppose she’s not a big fan of novels like The Great Gatsby or Catcher in the Rye.

I have to admit, one of the only books I’ve been able to really relate to as me was a chick lit novel. Good in Bed, by Jennifer Weiner, was about a journalist who had realistic life filled with cranky coworkers, love life implosions, and a cute little dog who kept her going. Sounds like my life if you replace the dog with two cats. Best of all, her character was a fat chick. Not just a fat chick, but one who didn’t spend all of her time worrying about her body or dieting.

There were fairy tale elements to the story (the main character meets a superstar by chance; the famous actress becomes a fairy godmother of sorts), but it made the novel all the more fun to read.

Even better yet, Weiner was at one time writing a novel about Superheroes. Not a comic, but a novel. The project fizzled out, but it proves how versatile chick lit is as a genre and how ingenuous its authors are as a group. It makes the zombie chick lit novel I’ll be writing for NaNoWriMo just another fun installation in a literary category.