On Chick Lit Again

It will be post about chick lit - well, sort of. Chick lit, that is literature for chicks, i.e. women, and written by women. 'Chick lit' is usually considered a derogattory term and very often used as such, not only by patronizing literary critics, but also by some people who think it is beneath their dignity to read such novels. Others, who do, often describe it as their "guilty pleasure". Well, I admit to liking it very much, with my head held high. :D Because you know, it is like with any other literary genre - there are great books, good books, mediocre books and those really, really badly written, so it's only a matter of careful choice.

I cannot say I have read a lot of chick lit, but definitely some, and my number one author is Marian Keyes. Her novels are chick lit in that they are written by a female writer for female readers, they are true page-turners, they are funny and populated with likeable characters readers can relate to - but there is more to them than that. Namely, Keyes does not avoid darker and very real problems, like depression, grief, drug addiction, alcoholism and recovering from it, and she does know what she is writing about, because all those things are part of her personal experience. She was very open about it in the past - she suffered (or even still does) from severe depression and she is a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for many years. What is more, she is more that capable of combining dark life reality with humour in her books, and I suppose that is one of the reasons she has been so successful as a writer.

That being said, her novels get all sorts of reviews - from glowing to scathing; her writing obviously does not resonate with everyone. Well, it resonates with me, for a number of reasons - and one of them is that she is not English, but Irish. And I think Irish is much closer to Polish than English is - because of similarities in our history, the shared religion (even though Keyes seems to be a lapsed Catholic - or at least most of her characters are ;)) and probably also a tradition of and predilection for excessive drinking. ;) Okay, just kidding. A bit.;)

As it is, I have a new recommendation for you. It is "Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married" - Keyes' second novel which I finished reading two days ago and I think it may be my very favourite so far. It is about an Irish girl, in her mid-twenties, living in London, who is in quest of true love and forced to face some home truths about herself and her family in the process. I am not going to talk about it much, because I do not want to spoil the plot for you, but as always, I am happy to share should anyone want to give it a go.