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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Only We Know by Karen Perry sparks some musings on genre

9/12/2015

4 Comments

 
Three children on a camping trip in Kenya meet another two little girls on the banks of a river. Mixing friendship and competition, as well as an unacknowledged rage, they devise a game that ends with a scream. The mothers come running and, while it might not be entirely clear how the tragedy occurred, one mother is adamant that her boys, Nick and Luke, along with Katie, the daughter of her best friend, must guard the shocking secret from the world. Thirty years later, Nick and Katie meet again back in Dublin, following Luke’s sudden disappearance. Over the next few weeks, they’re forced to confront their memories of their childhood trauma, and the damage the cover-up has caused.

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Trust me, it’s an interesting secret, as are their diverging memories of the event. I was particularly intrigued by the character of Sally, the mother (although she’s dead in the contemporary strand of the novel!), and the lengths to which she goes to protect, as she sees it, her boys. In a way, her own behaviour has precipitated the crisis, although she could never have dreamt it would end up like this.

I received my copy as part of the CB book group and, as it’s crime, it’s not one I’d have chosen for myself. It’s hard to review on two counts: having also written a novel about the impact of a childhood secret, I couldn’t help thinking about my own writing process whenever I felt irritated in the early chapters when the secret seemed to be dangled before my eyes like a present I wasn’t allowed to unwrap; the criticisms I have are probably more about the genre than the novel itself. While I could forgive the withholding, as my readers seem to have forgiven me, I felt the demands of the crime genre for blood and weapons, as well as the threatening showdown in some out of an off-the-way place, detracted from the psychological issues that interest me more.

Because of the online book group, I was able to ask the author (who, incidentally is two people, Karen Gillece and Paul Perry) why it was written as crime. This is Karen’s reply:

When Paul and I first started writing together, we had no idea what genre we would end up writing for. Indeed, some people have asked us whether the books fit comfortably within the crime genre or not. After all, they are not police procedurals, nor is there a high body count. Having said that, there is a crime at the heart of the novel, and I think that tonally they fit within the genre as there is a pervading air of threat and a mystery to be solved.

I'm really glad you like Sally's perspective - for me, she was the most interesting person to write. And what a situation to find yourself in! How torn you would be as a mother - the instinct to protect your child battling against the horror at what he has done. It's a defining moment in anyone's life, but in protecting her boys, she knowingly and coldheartedly destroys another person's life … I think that Sally's decision to lie in order to cover up is pure instinct. But once it is done, it sets things in motion that she could never foresee.


Given the popularity of crime fiction, I can’t blame the publisher who wants to position their authors there. But I’m not sure I’d classify an act by a small child, whatever the consequences, as a crime. And, as a recent post on Isabel Costello’s literary sofa testifies, many readers also appreciate a “quiet” book. I hope we can continue to have both. What are your thoughts on genre? Does it help or hinder your discovery of the books you’d like to read?

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
4 Comments
Sarah link
9/12/2015 11:39:08 pm

This looks so good (and upsetting). I can see all points of view here. Timely for me, too, as I'm trying to figure out a genre but decided to hell with it, I'll write and figure it out later. Crime seems an odd one for this but you never know...

I also like Isabel's comment at the end that "many readers also appreciate a “quiet” book."

Reply
Annecdotist
10/12/2015 06:37:52 pm

I can understand how genre works for some readers linking them to types of books they like, but I'm like you, to hell with it, and write what feels right.

Reply
Charli Mills
10/12/2015 12:10:01 am

Crime is not typically my read, but sometimes the historical fiction I like to read does cross over. I'm definitely not a quiet book reader; I like adventure and good story-telling.

I like it when you get the chance to interview the authors, and this particular review brings up the situation of genre for writers. Like Karen's response, I set out to write the story, not the genre. I decided that it fit women's fiction (tho, non-romance). However, my third novel is definitely a niche genre, western historical fiction for women. I don't think it gets more niche than that! But that's where I have publisher interest and really, it did surprise me. But if I go with a particular publisher, they want me to continue writing in that genre. So it puts me in a bit of a pickle with my earlier unpublished work because it's a different genre. I'm waiting to get established in the one genre, then I might decide to self-publish the two non-genre works. This was not how I planned it, but one needs to consider which work has the best legs.

Reply
Annecdotist
10/12/2015 06:43:54 pm

I think your situation is quite an interesting, but difficult one, Charli. It’s potentially problematic because although Rock Creek might fit a particular narrow genre, it might also be of interest to readers outside the genre who could miss it. Although I do see you’re very interested in history so could do well going down that line.
For a short while, Sugar and Snails was being considered by a specialist LGBT publisher, on the recommendation of another publisher, but I’m not sure what I’d have done if they’d accepted it, as that wasn’t the direction I was expecting to continue.

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