I just finished reading a book I didn’t expect to like, in which I was so engrossed I forgot to even look at the author’s photo until I’d completely finished the book. It’s called Love in Mid Air, and it’s by Kim Wright.
(My scan of my plastic-protected library book is not excellent, but it is better than Amazon’s weirdly low-quality picture.)
I got the book thinking it would be about a woman who has a meet-cute affair with an impossibly ideal man. And it IS about that (is he also RICH? Why, yes he IS!). And there was more raunch than I like: I don’t need the couple to lean out of the screen so I don’t even have to see them kiss ooo icky, but I also don’t need several-page sex scenes so descriptive they include the word “cervix.”And furthermore, while reading it I was frequently reminded of my own, um, “novel” that I wrote for NaNoWriMo: there’s a certain slapdash, anything-goes feeling to the writing, which in my own case was achieved by thinking “It does not matter what happens with the plot or what the pacing is or how likely this is, I just need to get 50,000 words in 31 days, so WRITE, write like the wind, and seize upon any idea that will generate more words!”
BUT. Something about the book—and it’s something that INCLUDES that anything-goes style, which she pulled off in a way I did not—was highly appealing. I’ve read so many books over the years, sometimes I feel like I’ve already read everything. I yawn and think, “So will it be ending A, in which she finds her Ideal Man is not so ideal after all and ends up staying with her husband? Or ending B, in which she leaves her husband and we’re supposed to believe the new guy is the man she was meant to be with all along? Or perhaps ‘surprise’ ending C, in which she ends up realizing she can live on her own without a man?” Which is why QUALITY WRITING becomes so important: if there are, as my English teacher said over and over again, no new plots and no new characters, then only the WAY the story is told matters. And yet this book DID surprise me, and furthermore it surprised me REPEATEDLY.
Just the other day my family was all together and my brother mentioned the astonishing scene near the end of Serenity (I won’t spoil it if you haven’t seen it), where something happens that makes you realize this movie is not going to play by the Movie Rules, and you can’t assume ANYTHING. (There’s a similar moment in the book Passage by Connie Willis.) This book was like that for me, though on a smaller scale: there were two or three places where I thought, “Huh. I see: I can’t think in terms of option A and B for this one. And where IS she going with this??”
Anyway. I liked it. It has elements of fluff, in that it is not a heavy-going intellectual kind of book and there is a feeling of “female fantasy life” to it. And as I said, it has SEXXX. But it also has SUBSTANCE and SURPRISE, and I found I really liked the way it went.
If it moved you enough to write about it, that’s a pretty solid recommendation right there.
Sounds interesting, and I’m going to check out those other 2 links, as well. Thx!
Thanks for the review – I’m gonna check this book out!
My first experience with books/movies not playing by the rules was City of Angels. Oh holy hell, was I PISSED at how that movie ended because that was NOT HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO END, DAMMIT.
(I’m still upset about it 12 years later, apparently.)
Ever since you talked about the importance of author photos, I’m totally obsessed with them. Have you ever read Jodi Picoult? What are your thoughts on hers?
I am still scarred by that scene in Serenity of which you speak-it will just pop into my head at random times, and I will think “why????”
Well, there you go mentioning one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time in the middle of a book review and now I am going to the library TODAY to see if it’s available. From now on, that’s how all things should be rated: on the Does Anything About It Remind You Of Serenity Scale?
I love books (or movies or even TV) that surprise but when you go back and think about it, you realize all of the elements were there all along. I just read a great SciFi book that surprised me (in a depressing way, but still well done) but I realized all of the elements were there, I just didn’t see how they were going to come together. Frankly, now that I think about it, it’s a little depressing how often this happens in books/movies/TV. Makes the ones that do manage it even better to me.
well, now that i have this BRAND NEW KINDLE from my lovely boyfriend, i’ll need to download this.. :)
No sex scene should contain the word cervix!! Hahaha!! That really made me laugh.
Belly Girl- It’s been awhile since I went on my Jodi Picoult kick. I seem to remember that I thought some of the photos looked great: she looked natural and friendly and had great hair but great NATURAL hair. And then others looked kind of over-glamored and airbrushed and not the way I thought of her after seeing the more natural ones, and I think there’s a hand-under-chin one, right? Overall high-scoring, but I liked her way more in the photos where she looked more natural, and the glamor ones gave me an unpleasant startle, like “Oh, I thought she was someone else.”
Oh, dear, I thought I couldn’t like you more, and then you went and referenced Connie Willis. Hooray!
I think you might really, really like Laurie Colwin. Try Family Happiness, Or any of her books, really, they are all wonderful.
Jenny- Added to library list!
While “cervix” isn’t exactly HOTT, I decided to take the plunge and reserved this book at the library. It’ll be an indulgence for the bus ride to and from work.