Tuesday, June 21, 2005

In Praise of Jennifer Crusie

Am I the last person in the US to discover the books of Jennifer Crusie? Just in case I'm not, I have to tell you how much I love them so like-minded people can enjoy them too. Last night I finished "Faking It", a sort of sequel to "Welcome to Temptation". ("Sort of" in the sense that she's turned a couple of secondary characters from WtT into main characters in FI.) I've been reading every JC novel I could find over the past few months and unfortunately that was the last one I could find in print until she has something new published. (sob) Now that I've found her books, she's going to be one of those authors that I'll be watching for every new book so I can read it as soon as possible! Ms. Crusie writes screwball romantic comedies. There's quite often a touch of mystery to the stories too, but that's almost negligible. The point of the stories is the oddball cast of characters and their interactions with each other. The dialogue is witty and there are usually pop culture references throughout that can be fun to watch for if you're into books, movies, and/or music. They contain some pretty explicit sex and language, so they probably aren't going to appeal to those who are easily offended by those things. But since I'm offended by things like bigotry, cruelty, and willful stupidity, not sex and cussing, that doesn't bother me at all. So if you a) haven't read a Jennifer Crusie novel, and you b) enjoy writers like Janet Evanovich, and movies like "The Philadelphia Story", "A Fish Called Wanda", or "American Dreamer", RUN, don't walk, to your nearest library or book store and check her out! If you are a deeply serious individual who considers "War and Peace" to be a light novel, then a) don't bother, and b) why the heck are you reading THIS blog??