BEAT THEM WITH A SHOE: So Maggie Marr went to Hollywood as a wide-eyed Midwesterner, worked at ICM, and sold a two-book deal to Crown for $1.5 million. Her first book is the Hollywood Girls Club. Because it's entirely possible for a lawyer who interned in Washington DC to go to Hollywood and be completely innocent of the kind of chicanery that occurs there.
This is like The Devil Wears Prada, but with a worse title. It's like Because She Can, but about people who don't read anything but the trades. It's like Little Pink Slips, but set in Hell A. It's like Falling Out of Fashion, except you get jobs for celebrities instead of interviewing them.
The issue is not an author who writes a roman a clef about a Bad Boss and Unreasonable Demands. (You want a bad boss? I had a boss who wouldn't let us have coffee in the office because it was unhealthy, but he drank rum out of a china teacup from morning until night and was clinically insane. My favorite boss was a guy who let me read books all day and called me baby. I think he was in the mob.)
The issue is not the quality of the book. It may be terrific.
The issue is Books about Women Obsessed with Shoes. Publishers Weekly described the Marr's story as "a quartet of shameless, shoe-crazy ladies bent on building fame and fortune through blockbusters . "
I am tired of this. I have shoes. I like them as much as any other article of clothing. My characters wear shoes. Shoes are useful and can also be quite decorative.
But I've never met one woman whose interest in shoes approaches the designer shoe fetishism described in these Bad Boss books. I'd say the shoes have become an easy cheat to show that a character is status-conscious, superficial, and fiscally irresponsible. But frequently the shoe-obsessed are the heroines of these stories. So my theory is: mentioning expensive designer shoes shows readers that the author herself is hip and chic.
Is she being hip to reality or merely being hip to Darren Starr's serialization of Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City? Are women copying a man's idea of a woman's idea of what women are like?
All of this makes me want to take my shoe off, bang in on the table, and scream real loud.
For truly clever writing about shoes, one must read The Manolo.
5 comments:
i love this post.
marina
http://objectifythis.wordpress.com
Marta
Thank you for reading the book. The shoes, for me, were a surprise when I moved to Los Angeles. I was shocked (and still am at times) that my colleagues and friends can shell out so much $$ for the Manolos. Hope you enjoy the second book; Secrets of The Hollywood Girls Club.
xo
Maggie Marr
Hi, Marina, cool blog! Glad you enjoyed my post.
Hello, Maggie, someone recently asked if I actually read all the book I mention on my blog, and the answer is (to my shame) no. I write about books in the news, but I frequently buy the books later. (The husband reads the non-fiction books and gives me short summaries.)
Congrats on your HUGE book deal. If we ever go out to lunch, you can pick up the tab. It sounds like a great summer read. The fun with a roman a clef is figuring out the real people hidden behind the characters.
Since you're a lawyer and analytical by nature, what's your take on the expenditure on shoes? A class indicator? Compulsive shopping to fill empty lives? Women as victims of mass marketing? Why aren't men obsessed by shoes? Inquiring minds want to know.
Shoes? Hmm...I think, in part, it's because no matter how large a woman's pant size or shirt size may get their shoe size remains the same..(well it might go up one size after kids). That, and shoes are kind of like the cherry on a sundae...only upside down...now I'm babbling.
xoMaggie
very nice blog..I will not accept the maggie's thought,shoes will develop our personality and gives confidence.my nike shoes really makes me high in the socity..........
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