Madeleine Wickham aka Sophie Kinsella

Go on, how many of you will 'fess up to reading the Shopoholic series? C'mon... I'm not talking about the god-awful movie that was produced starring Isla Fisher (who can be so very funny, but like all actors requires a half-reasonable script to get her part of the way there). I'm talking about Sophie Kinsella's laugh-out-loud books about Rebecca Bloomwood, the financial journalist incapable of managing her own finances due to her out-of-control spending.

Sure, it's not high-brow, but as far as chick lit goes this is some of the best in the genre. Few books have made me actually laugh until I have tears running down my face, but Kinsella consistently get this reaction from me. I have read the entire Shopoholic series as well as her other books (her new one, I've Got Your Number, is a true return to form, I highly recommend it if you're looking for a light comic read).

So imagine my delight when, during an Amazon browse (I do so love an Amazon browse when I can't physically get to a bookstore) I stumbled across the unexpected information that she has written many more books than I realised, and under a different name. Sophie Kinsella is a pseudonym!

As Madeleine Wickham (her real name), and whilst working as a financial journalist, she published her first book aged 24. After it received both critical and public acclaim, she wrote 6 more novels under that name before writing the first Shopaholic book and submitting the manuscript unsolicited to her existing publisher as Sophie Kinsella, without informing them that she was the same person they had been publishing for years. The novel was immediately accepted for publication and there you have it. It wasn't until ten years later, in 2005, that she revealed her true identity.

This story impresses me because it shows what a naturally talented writer she is: she has been twice accepted as an unsolicited first-time author by a big publishing house. That is extremely unusual, these days - and I know the industry was probably different ten or fifteen years ago, but not so different as to make this an easy feat, even back then. There have been experiments done, as most have you have probably read, where the famous works of classic writers have been submitted to unsuspecting modern-day publishing houses and rejected across the board.

Anyway; as soon as I found out about Madeleine Wickham I went on an e-book binge. I downloaded her first novel, The Tennis Party (also published as 40-Love) and loved it, and then immediately downloaded and read all of the others in quick succession.

A scan of online reviews reveals that most Kinsella fans are disappointed by Wickham's writing, largely because it is not what they are used to. Wickham's books are darker. Unlike Kinsella's characters, Wickham's are real and, therefore, inherently flawed. As Madeleine Wickham, she writes contemporary women's fiction that is also a social critique of British society and its class striations. None of the characters are entirely likeable, but the storylines are sufficiently diverting that it doesn't matter.

In Swimming Pool Sunday, the separated parents of a girl who suffers a head injury in a neighbour's pool need to decide whether to carry through with a damaging lawsuit against their neighbours, even though their daughter seems to be recovering well. In The Tennis Party, a group of friends who, many years ago, used to live on the same London street, meet at one family's new country mansion for a leisurely weekend during which the current differences in their economic status and the individual greed of some members of the group threaten to ruin any prospects of ongoing friendship. In The Gatecrasher a funeral-crasher cum con-woman toys with the possibility of redemption when her latest target provides a domestic stability she has never before experienced.

I would give each of her books a solid 3 out of five. Don't pick them up if you are hoping for more Sophie Kinsella; but if you like British social commentary and contemporary women's fiction, you will enjoy Wickham's writing. And isn't it fun to find a hidden store of novels written by an author you like, even if they are somewhat different to what you've come to expect? A little hidden treasure trove.

Steve Hely - How I Became a Famous Novelist

I picked up this satiric novel whilst browsing last week in Berkelouw books.

(On a side note, it is rare these days that I get time out to myself without a toddler in tow, so a big shout-out to Biblio-hubby for granting me that delicious hour, especially in circumstances where he was fully aware that any bookstore visit would involve a purchase or two. Or three.)

Perhaps it is because I am myself trying to get published that I was drawn to the title of this book, but I also remember hearing about it somewhere, sometime on the interweb. In any case, it looked diverting and so it was.

Steve Hely has written for 30 Rock, The Office and American Dad, three of my favourite shows, so I thought this book would have me laughing out loud. It didn't, not really. It's amusing,  but the heavy cynicism underpinning Hely's writing is quite dark, and that tempers the humour. In some ways it's a bit of a depressing read for anyone involved in the book industry or seriously interested in books.

Pete Tarslaw, the narrator of the novel, is a young apathetic college grad whose job involves writing fake college application essays for people who can't write or aren't smart enough or diligent enough to do it themselves. The only thing that gets Pete hot under the collar is his ex-girlfriend, so when she sends him an invitation to her wedding he decides he will attend, but only in order to show her up. In the meantime, with an astounding lack of knowledge or insight about the modern publishing industry, he decides he will write a book, become a bestseller, develop fame and fortune - all of which will, he presumes, allow him to land at her wedding in his own plane, splashing Krug liberally on all of the smitten guests. In order to achieve this spectacular success he analyses the New York Times bestseller list and determines what elements a book should contain in order to achieve optimum sales - for example, he soon concludes that any bestselling book must include a murder, secrets / mysterious missions, scenes on highways (to make driving seem poetic and magical), an ending evoking confusing sadness, and that the prose should be lyrical.

Armed with these 'rules', he sets off to a his aunt's house in a quiet rural location (figuring this will later go some way to proving his voice has authenticity) and, particularly improbably, writes his book within a week, albeit with the help of not-yet-FDA-approved pills provided by his researcher roommate. After a series of coincidences that play up the desperate state of modern print publishing, his book is sold. After another series of unusual coincidences, it climbs up the sales list until he is giving television interviews and rubbing shoulders with precisely the bestselling authors whose styles he aped in the first place.

Of course Pete is confronted by a number of cruel realities along the way - when his book sells, for example, he is astonished by the paltry sum of money he is offered as an advance (he had been imagining millions, book-writing being the biggest scam of the century). And ultimately, if somewhat unconvincingly, he comes to recognise that writing is more (means more) than he had thought. But overall, the impression that remains is of a spoilt, cynical young person whose sense of entitlement far outweighs any shred of integrity. If the future of books is indeed left in the hands of such a self-interested instant-gratification generation, it is no future at all.

Favourite / notable part(s):

"They're talking lawyers over here. Okay? Laywers! You might have to apologise to Oprah."

"What'd I do to her?"

"She's just - that's who you apologise to."

(love this thinly veiled reference to the James Frey scandal, which I wrote about here: http://nomadsbynecessity.blogspot.com.au/search?updated-max=2009-09-23T04:19:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=14&by-date=false)

Overall assessment (Note: I don't like having to reduce my feelings about a book to stars, but Goodreads makes me do it so I may as well carry it on here): 3 out of 5 stars.

It's well-written (the excerpts of other, fake novels contained within this one make me think Steve Hely is probably a genius writer and we should wait eagerly for any serious novels he writes in the future), and a good entertaining read, and it made me think about writing and publishing and what it all means. But I wouldn't read it again and it's not going on my 'special bookshelf'.