Saturday 10 July 2010

Looking for Andrew McCarthy


Normally I start my posts with a picture of the book cover. Not this time. No, the very virtue of writing about a book called Looking for Andrew McCarthy is I get to look for lots of pictures of Andrew McCarthy. So here's the first, possibly my favourite McCarthy moment, in Pretty in Pink (cue Psychedelic Furs soundtrack starting in my head). Every time I watch that film I fall a little a lot back in love with him again. I'm a touch too young to remember the films the first time round but I totally get it. Those crinkly eyes, that sweet smile. Sigh...

So I thought the premise behind Looking for Andrew McCarthy was brilliant. A newly turned 30-year-old, wondering where her life has gone wrong decides Andrew McCarthy must know the answer and heads off on a classic American road trip trying to find him.

The thing I love about those brat pack films is the way they fizzle - with longing, hormonal lust and and a lovely dose of teenage angst. By setting itself up against those expectations Looking for Andrew McCarthy fell a bit flat for me. Ellie, or 'hedgehog', the heroine was awkward and a bit of a misfit sure, but you didn't root for her the way you did for Andi in Pretty in Pink. I found all the angst and obstacles in their path annoying rather than building up to the inevitable romantic ending and to be honest, I was pleased when it was all over.

There was one bit of the book I did really enjoy though. Ellie finally manages to meet Mr McCarthy in a New York diner. Of course he imparts wise words and theories about love and metaphysics. And he reminds us of the following too: 'Don't make plans. Just keep rolling on and accept that life isn't ever going to be like it is in a actual movie'.

Or an actual chick lit. Oh that's actually quite disappointing. Clearly I've got to accept the fact I'll never meet Andrew McCarthy. But here's a final nice all grown-up picture of him for us all to fantasize over...



Wednesday 7 July 2010

You can't judge a chick lit from its cover

Aggh, lots of chick lit read but less written by me about it. This will change, I hope. After all, I'm now going to be 30 in less than a month - my official cut-off point for this project - and I still feel I've just gently caressed the surface of chick lit. So something of a slight filler post here, directly related to the surface of chick lit - their covers.

Right at the start of this blog part of my definition of what made a chick lit novel was the pastel cover and the swirly writing. It wasn't something I ever wanted to be seen carrying around (incidentally all my tube based shame has vanished - I've been proudly waving around a bright pink, sparkly copy of Divas Las Vegas all week). Anyway, the Bookseller a couple of weeks ago featured a write-up of a 'cover design conference' at which Fiona Curran, design director at Williams Murry Hamm, criticised the covers of chick lit for being overly formulaic: pink script type, pastel colours and a girlie illustration. In her honour you may have noticed I've changed the colours of this blog to her stated combo (anyone want to draw a picture of me, martini glass in one hand, pink book in the other to go with it?). Here's the example she used:


Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella


Encore Valentine by Adriana Trigiani

You can see her point. Oh look, pink + pastel + pretty woman on the front in a dress = GIRLS book. It's quite boring and depressing and patronising. 

The instance that really annoyed me is when a while back they decided to remarket Jane Austen as chick lit. Here's Persuasion. Spot the difference, eh? 



When they first did this what really annoyed me was that I felt they had reduced Austen to chick lit turf. That was what lots of people dismissed her as and this new cover merely shoved her further into that genre. It gave no clue to how witty, clever or interesting she really is. Now, after my explorations into chick lit, what annoys me is that they do that with all the books. Here are the covers of three different authors, three different stories and yet they are all marketed the same. 

At the same conference, David Wardle, founder of Designbydavid, said of a different genre 'To design them in such a unified format seems to devalue the content and the individual form.'

Exactly. The truth is that people do judge a book by its cover, so can we have a more diverse and range of chick lit designs please? It's just possible the readership might follow and get a bit more diverse too...