In the wake of Franzenfreude and the literary prize season, everyone seems to be talking about what it means to be a female novelist. This week, two British papers posed the question to two novelists—Lionel Shriver and Curtis Sittenfeld—and got some interesting answers.
Curtis Sittenfeld told the Guardian, in an interview about American Wife, “I think in general, novels by men tend to be taken more seriously than novels by women. But I also think that novels being taken seriously is kind of a nebulous concept. I mean, what does that mean? Getting multiple reviews in the New York Times? Personally, I have never wished I were a male novelist.”
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- Sittenfeld
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- Shriver
Shriver’s piece in the Independent is, characteristically, a bit more provocative. In an essay written partly as a response to her acceptance of an invitation to read at an all-female literary conference (“I confess that I accepted the invitation to appear in this festival before I realised it was an all-female line-up,” she writes. “Had I known, I’d not necessarily have declined the invite, but I’d certainly not have been any more inclined to say yes.”), Shriver goes on to admit that she sometimes has trouble including female writers when asked to name her favorites, in part because “The big names in the literary pantheon are repeated over and over again. . . . [I]n the glare of a spotlight and frantic to remember any author’s name at all, even women like me are going to remember Philip Roth – just as, asked to name a soft drink, I’m going to remember Coca-Cola. Advertising works.”
But she also suggests—with a few caveats—that there’s another problem: “contemporary female authors tend to write books, not B-list exactly, but A-. There are wonderful exceptions to this little markdown, many in my personal all-female pantheon above, but they are too few.”
As someone who reads and loves many female authors, including Sittenfeld and Shriver, I’m not 100% sure I believe that assertion. (An oversimplification, but I found myself identifying with a comment from 1maia asserting that “Most american men write about being rich but bored and shagging their friend’s wife, which i can neither relate to nor find interesting.”) Readers, what do you have to say?
Related in BookPage: Interviews with Curtis Sittenfeld (about American Wife and Man of My Dreams) and Lionel Shriver (about The Post-Birthday World).
“Shriver goes on to admit that she sometimes has trouble including female writers when asked to name her favorites”
I wonder how many A / A+ authors Shriver has read and how diligently she looks to find their books that are typically published by small presses. There is a wealth of great American contemporary writers who happen to be female: Rikki Ducornet, Shelly Jackson, Christine Wertheim, Carole Maso, Lidia Yuknavitch, Lily Hoang, Vanessa Place, and on and on. I include myself, without apology. We are women who are pushing and dissolving boundaries, exploring the nuances of language as it relates to many diverse political, social and cultural issues. We’re rarely covered in the press because the majority of reviewers and critics are not educated enough to intelligently discuss their work. On the other hand, our books are taught in universities and colleges.
I do agree with Shriver’s view of a women’s writing conference. Why perpetuate the gender divide?
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An oversimplification to be sure, this topic gets enough press that I am inclined to believe men may get more reviews and awards but I don’t believe that is because women do A- work. I don’t even feel the need to spout out names here. Ok well maybe one- Barbara Kingsolver. How many male authors are there? How many female? How many male authors are out there to write lightly? Maybe the sheer number of women authors write fluff or fun it higher than the female authors who are out there giving the serious males a run for their money. I don’t know but to say that women are A- writers in general. No. Not going to believe that one.
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