My Lesbian Novel

Despite its title, this book is only approximately 20% of lesbian novel. The rest is "high brow author reflecting on her creative process in a fictionalized interview form", which is about as bad as it sounds. To be fair to the author, the format works in as far as it forces one (i.e. me) to long for the lesbian novel bits in order to find out what happens, and also to enjoy some vicarious sex/romance. That's an interesting literary device, but not enough to sustain a book.

I have low patience for artists talking about being artists in general terms, and found the interview bits fairly pretentious and boring. This especially stood out because the author is clearly ambivalent about lesbian romance novels: I had the feeling that she wants to like them, knows that not liking them is uncool [controversial opinion: nothing wrong with disliking them, you do you Renee], but somehow cannot get pass the fact that she doesn't. So, she feels self-conscious about her romance writing, constantly wants to interject, justify, self-deprecate, let us know she knows better than that...when it's the other 80% of the book that needs some more self-awareness. Harsh, I know. The author does sound lovely though, and I hear some people enjoyed it.

Even though this book is an interview, it doesn't answer the questions I wanted to ask. Why does she need to write a lesbian novel? Why does this novel have to be about a woman who has a boyfriend? Is it cheating when the main character smells the neck of her crush and then obsesses over her for 12 months? (RG claims to hate cheating in romance novels, along with many other tropes.)

Despite that, and despite all the moments when RG seemed to be trying to lose my sympathy (the architecture parts; the grandiose overthinking re. artistic process; her refusal to see why conventional romance novels can be a joy to read), I couldn't avoid relating to this book. She cannot write a romance novel. On every page, she presents her failure to do so. Perhaps unintentionally, she demonstrates how important it is to be able to describe a character opening the fridge. (Or indeed, to describe a character at all.) Maybe I just relate to this because I have also failed to write a romance novel. But she kind of makes me want to try (and fail) again.