How many times have you read a review that disdains a book because it has a constructive resolution of the central conflict—also known as a happy ending? The same reviewer will then praise another book for its relentless portrayal of the bleakness of everyday life.
This is propaganda, not criticism. What the critics are actually talking about is their own intellectual bias, their own chosen myth: pessimism. They aren’t offering an intelligent analysis of an author’s ability to construct and execute a novel.
Contrary to what the critics tell us, popular fiction is not a swamp of barely literate escapism; popular fiction is composed of ancient myths newly reborn, telling and retelling a simple truth: ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Jack can plant a beanstalk that will provide endless food; a Tom Clancy character can successfully unravel a conspiracy that threatens the lives of millions. A knight can slay a dragon; a Stephen King character can defeat the massed forces of evil. Cinderella can attract the prince through her own innate decency rather than through family connections; a Nora Roberts heroine can, through her own strength, rise above a savagely unhappy past and bring happiness to herself and others.
The next time you hear a work of popular fiction being scorned as foolish, formulaic, or badly written, ask yourself if it is truly badly written, foolish, and formulaic, or is it simply speaking to a transcendent tradition that emphasizes ancient hope rather than modernist despair?
In our society, popular fiction is story after story told around urban campfires, stories which point out that life is not a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing. There is more to life than defeat and despair. Life is full of possibilities. Victory is one of them. Joy is another.
And that’s why people read popular fiction. To be reminded that life is worth the pain.
—Elizabeth Lowell
(This essay was originally published at www.elizabethlowell.com, a partner of www.writerspace.com.)
About the Author
ELIZABETH LOWELL has over twenty million books in print. Her contemporary novels published by HarperCollins are: Desert Rain; To the Ends of the Earth; Remember Summer; Where the Heart Is. The Donovan novels—Amber Beach, Jade Island, Pearl Cove, and Midnight in Ruby Bayou—were instant New York Times bestsellers. Classic contemporary romances by Ms. Lowell include: Forget Me Not, Lover in the Rough, A Woman Without Lies; Beautiful Dreamer; Eden Burning. HarperCollins also publishes Ms. Lowell’s romance-suspense novels Moving Target and Running Scared. Ms. Lowell lives in Seattle with her husband, with whom she writes mystery novels under a pseudonym.
Please visit www.elizabethlowell.com.
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Also by Elizabeth Lowell
Amber Beach
Autumn Lover
Beautiful Dreamer
Eden Burning
Enchanted
Forbidden
Forget Me Not
Jade Island
Lover in the Rough
Midnight in Ruby Bayou
Moving Target
Only His
Only Love
Only Mine
Pearl Cove
Remember Summer
Running Scared
To the Ends of the Earth
Untamed
Where the Heart Is
Winter Fire
A Woman Without Lies
This Time Love
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ONLY LOVE. Copyright © 1995 by Two of a Kind, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
HarperCollins e-book extra: “Popular Fiction: Why We Read It, Why We Write It” copyright © 1999-2002 by Two of a Kind, Inc. This essay was originally published at www.elizabethlowell.com, a partner of www.writerspace.com.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2003 ISBN: 9780061802744
First Avon Books printing: July 1995
20 19 18 17 16
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dear Reader
The Only Family
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
HarperCollins E-book Extra
About the Author
Also by Elizabeth Lowell
Copyright
About the Publisher