Women's Fiction

Christian women's fiction is not something I usually read. I'm more comfortable in the rough-and-tumble world of contemporary and suspense -- guy stuff. But I've started straying off the reservation, and finding writers in the "women's genres," which seem to be the vast majority of both writers and readers of Christian fiction. (I don't like the shortened name a lot of people give to this area of writing -- "chick lit." Cute, perhaps, but vaguely demeaning.)

Right now, I'm reading Marlo Schalesky's If Tomorrow Never Comes. The title alone suggests women's fiction, and if there was any doubt, the book cover convincingly settles it. You'd be hard-pressed to find a guy carrying around a book with that kind of cover -- no explosions, no blood or gore, no power tools, nothing recognizably male. In this case, the cover shows a winsome illustration of a woman's face, a beach, a sand castle and a solitary figure walking. The cover suggests impressions, feelings and the possibility of lost love. Yep, it's not a guy thing.

But a third of the way into it, I'm finding the novel quietly engaging. The writing is solid. I'm beginning to recognize the main plot device (it would have taken a woman reader a lot less time to figure it out -- but I got it once the dog showed up). I can see where the story is moving, and how it's likely to end. So I'm settling into how the story will develop. I'm understanding that the point here is not so much getting to the end but going along for the journey.

I'll have a post on the novel in a few days, but for now -- if even a guy can read it, get it and enjoy it, the author has a gift -- and she's done a fine job.