I recently finished my second novel in 4 months in which the protagonist has an affair. In both cases, the protagonist is a middle-aged woman who has been married a while and feels stale. She embarks on a new journey - goes home, gets a new job, whatever - and there, she meets someone. There's instant mutual attraction, blah blah blah. She shakes off her guilt and is madly in love with her new guy. They start to envision a future together. And THEN, he says something weird or she learns something important about her past, and she reverts back to being happy with her husband.
These books make me really angry. I shake my finger at these women and urge them not to be so carefree about tossing their marriages aside. Marriage as a commitment and a way of life and I care about my own marriage too much to be 'moved' or even entertained by a story about someone being careless with hers.
I guess you could say I'm too married.
What kinds of books do you avoid because they rile you up too much?
I've read books like that, and I get so annoyed by it. There's no such thing as being "too married". We just value our spouses more than most I guess.
ReplyDeleteI'd say you're the right amount married. I don't know that I can say I avoid books with certain themes because I don't read much anymore, but I don't like stories where the woman leaves the current guy and realizes that the more exciting one is the one she should be with and the exciting guy who is trying to break up this committed relationship is shown as the nice guy. Makes a good story, but so unrealistic. I also hate the stories where the girl is a complete jerk and doesn't like the guy, but the guy is so in love and relentlessly pursues the girl until she finally sees how great he is. That's not realistic either. It makes girls think that acting that way doesn't matter and a good guy will chase after you.
ReplyDeleteHailey - note taken :)
ReplyDeleteKelley - you are so right! It's not realistic at all. Although I do think that some real-life stories of the girl not being interested and the guy being persistent are cute. Sometimes it does take a minute - but being uninterested and being a jerk are two different things.