Chick vs. Lit
Elizabeth Merrick didn't know she'd be launching a full-on literary war when she put together the short story collection This is Not Chick Lit. She was simply trying to showcase exceptional modern women writers who write stories that go beyond the chic shoes, domineering bosses and comedic love lives often found in the increasingly popular "chick lit" genre.
Her collection features a wealth of thought-provoking, compelling stories that are unpredictable and completely unexpected. There are stories of housewives and young women trying to find happiness, but there are also stories of old women, neurotic women, immigrants, poor women and even young homosexual men. I've read only a minute amount of chick lit, but none of it focused on characters who have real problems--poverty, abuse, genocidal dictators, and old-fashioned racism. This is Not Chick Lit has all that and much more. I suppose that may sound depressing, but in general the stories are refreshingly honest and so full of reality that there is no time to mope as you dig through the pages wondering how it will all resolve.
My favorite story involves a young woman who volunteers at a homeless shelter for women and children in Washington, DC. She's a very sympathetic character and I wanted to cheer for her but it became increasingly clear that she was more than a tad bit unstable. I also loved (and was disturbed) by the story of an older black woman who marries a young man and quickly regrets the decision.
Every story in the collection is strong and engaging. I've consumed the author bios and have a long list of new books that I need to buy so I can continue to enjoy the works of these fabulous women writers.
When the women who write chick lit heard about This is Not Chick Lit many of them grew angry and wanted to prove that chick lit can be just as serious and satisfying as "not chick lit." Lauren Baratz-Logsted edited the result, This is Chick Lit and tries to balance her anger with recognition that any attention that causes people to read more books by women is good attention. Frankly, I think she missed the point of Merrick's collection. Merrick wasn't looking down on chick lit, as she clearly states in her introduction. Instead, she was brilliantly exploiting its popularity by using the word in the title of her collection. The chick lit authors should feel flattered that they've become so popular that other authors feel the need to define themselves by stating they are "not chick lit." Either way, the literary war is working in the favor of everyone involved. People are curious about both volumes and reading both, thus encountering authors they might not have read, or even heard of, before.
This is Chick Lit is a fun collection of a wide variety of chick lit stories. Lauren Baratz-Logsted and her fellow authors tried to show a serious side of the genre, and the result was an interesting read. As I read the first story I was very worried about where the collection was going. The story hits a sour note by being a very didactic tale of a chick lit author triumphing over a serious literary author. Most of the rest of the stories are fun reads, though they aren't exactly compelling. It's chick lit. That's what the cover says, that's what it is. There are very few deeper truths revealed, though Ariella Pappa does provide a taste of the strange when her main character literally grows a third eye. Other stories delve a little too deeply into the chick lit category and are annoying almost to the point of being unreadable.
All in all I'd recommend this collection if you're looking for new, fun authors and need a quick beach read. Comparing This is Chick Lit to This is Not Chick Lit is like comparing apples to oranges. They serve very different purposes. One is light entertainment built on two-dimensional characters while the other is strikingly real and thought-provoking. If you buy only one, make it Elizabeth Merrick's collection.