Librarians and other library professionals.

William Shakespeare

Guy Gavriel Kay

C.S. Lewis

To be honest, it is the very idea and term “chick lit” that I find offensive and degrading. Especially because there is no equivalent derisive term that is used to dismiss books written by male authors that focus on male issues and struggles. It’s only books written by women that focus on issues and struggles relevant to women that get denigrated as “chick lit.” A term that explicitly shames women for writing and reading these stories and discourages males from ever seeking out these stories as well.

It reinforces this idea that male writers, male readers, and male struggles are universal and the default whereas female writers, female readers, and female struggles are not the default and are not universal. Thus, books by female authors that discuss female issues and struggles are at high risk of being deemed “chick lit.”

Basically, as we see in many of the replies in this thread, if a female reader doesn’t relate to a book by a male author that focuses primarily on male issues and struggles, then it is assumed to be something lacking in her (either her intelligence or empathy is wanting) because she can’t appreciate this great classic that will be forced down her throat in high school and college.

However, if male readers want to avoid books by female authors that focus on female issues and struggles, that is seen as fine and perfectly normal. Even encouraged by the term “chick lit.” Basically, if a male reader can’t relate to a book by a female author that focuses on female issues and struggles, it is not seen as any sort of deficiency or reflective of any lack of intelligence or empathy in him. Because why would a book by a silly female focusing on silly female issues be relevant to him? So, the lacking is assumed to be on the part of the female author, the book for writing about female issues and struggles, and on the female readers who find something worthwhile or meaningful in “chick lit” that is treated as obviously lesser than books by male authors that focus on issues and struggles relevant to men.

It’s not about reading one author or book more or less.

It’s about changing the underlying assumptions and attitudes that impact how we read all authors and books, in my opinion.

At least that is my view and perspective.

Well, I am sure that a female author who wrote about females and their struggles as exclusively as Hemingway wrote about males and their struggles would have their works dismissed and derided as “chick lit” rather than taken seriously and lauded as classics that everyone should read and are universally relatable to everyone. That’s sort of the thing. Men in terms of writers and readers are treated as the default. So works written exclusively for and about them are still deemed universal and quality literature (true classics that must be read and appreciated by all), but works by women who are not seen as the default that mainly focus on female characters and their struggles will be seen as only for women and denigrated as lesser “chick lit.”

I’ve read The Sun Also Rises. I thought it was okay. Probably spoke better to the people of its generation than to me. It definitely didn’t register for me as great literature.

I read a short story by him. Don’t remember the title but it was about a little boy getting sick and confused about his temperature meaning he would die (a celsius versus Fahrenheit thing) and I thought that was genuinely moving.

Based on my experience, I’d probably be quicker to pick up another short story by him than another novel.

His writing style to me is very flat and simplistic with very repetitive and dull sentence structure. Personally, I again prefer it in his short stories rather than his novels.

I don’t hate his writing style, but I don’t think it is particularly brilliant, and when it gets worshiped as the best ever and treated as something all other authors should emulate, it becomes tiresome. There are plenty of different styles (some inspired or influenced by the other many great authors that have appeared in the history of writing) that people can use so when Hemingway is given some sort of god status above even other classical writers, it makes me roll my eyes.

It’s the lionization of Hemingway and elevation of him to some sort of unquestionable literary deity that irritates me more than anything else.

That and the knowledge that if he were a female writing stories focused on females and their struggles his works would just get dismissed as “chick lit.” But since he is a man they are classics everybody must read and relate to.

The sexist double standard that treats females as beneath men is alive and well in the world of literature.

You sort of answered your own question. It’s not a YA book. It’s an adult book marketed toward adults.

That being said, just because it is an adult book doesn’t guarantee you are the target audience just because you happen to be an adult. Nor does it being an adult book mean it is automatically going to have the complex characters and themes along with beautiful prose you are looking for since all of literature isn’t divided between “YA fiction” and “serious lit” as you describe it.

You might want to stick to classics and literary fiction if that is what you are looking for, and avoid genre fiction even if it is for adults.

However, there must also have been a reason why you picked up this book. Why you thought it would appeal to you.

So maybe keep reading and see if it does.

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