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Wednesday, December 28, 2005

The Wives of Bath

(When I read this book, I assumed it to be a debut, because of the uneven unpolished writing style. So imagine my surprise when I searched amazon.co.uk and discovered 5 other books by Wendy Holden.)

Yes, here I am again, discussing chick lit. But honestly, chick lit is not all bad. Sometimes you feel like a spot of Joyce (as if!), sometimes you want the magical seduction of Anne Rice's earlier books... and there are times when the tumble dryer is broken beyond repair, the credit card is groaning, the kids are grumpy and the only way you can stay sane is by eating junk food and reading junk books.

As junk books go, this is a good one, because it keeps you reading. It also makes you smile and nod in places, and even read bits to the husband with the interlude of "see, this sounds exactly like you".

As books go, this is not a great one. Don't we have copy editors anymore to spot blunders such as a five month baby crawling?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there

I have heard that most BIG publishing houses don't have copy editors anymore as they are expensive. Leisure books is a good example, seen how many errors are in those books?

As to that book. The author achieved her plan, she kept you reading and relating to the characters. Isn't that the writer's job?

Yvonne Eve Walus said...

Yes, you're right, I did keep reading. I have no qualms whatsoever about quitting a book - be it after the first sentence, or the halfway mark, or even on the second last page. I was even tempted to read another book by the same author, but the reviews on Amazon were all very mediocre.

If big publishing houses don't have copy editors, I'm glad I'm published by a medium-sized one. I had a great copy editor for "Murder @ Work"!