Respect for Characters
I just finished my second British chick-lit book in as many months that features primary characters who have adulterous affairs without consequences. In neither book do the adulterers confess to their spouses. In neither book do the adulterers suffer any social-, economic- or other-harm.
I haven't seen this trope in US chick-lit (although I'm certain that it's there.) I find it really distasteful. I understand that adultery happens, and I can readily see it happening in a chick-lit book about relationships, friendship, etc. But I believe that there should be *costs*. There should be *lessons learned*. There should be *consequences*.
By contrast, I recently read MARCH, by Geraldine Brooks, an imagining of what happened to the father in LITTLE WOMEN while he was off fighting the Civil War. March is a character who finds himself in bad circumstances. Sometimes, he makes bad choices. Always, he has to live with what happens around him. He faces consequences - some expected, some surprising. His character is sculpted by those consequences.
And the story is so much more satisfying...
I haven't seen this trope in US chick-lit (although I'm certain that it's there.) I find it really distasteful. I understand that adultery happens, and I can readily see it happening in a chick-lit book about relationships, friendship, etc. But I believe that there should be *costs*. There should be *lessons learned*. There should be *consequences*.
By contrast, I recently read MARCH, by Geraldine Brooks, an imagining of what happened to the father in LITTLE WOMEN while he was off fighting the Civil War. March is a character who finds himself in bad circumstances. Sometimes, he makes bad choices. Always, he has to live with what happens around him. He faces consequences - some expected, some surprising. His character is sculpted by those consequences.
And the story is so much more satisfying...
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