‘Chick lit’

Novelist is in the vanguard of a new publishing phenomenon.

By: Aleen Crispino
   Jennifer O’Connell, 36, lives with her husband and their two children, a 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, in a Chicago suburb. She has a B.A. in government from Smith College and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. She is the owner of a marketing strategy firm which she started from home when her second child was born. She is also the author of her second novel, "Dress Rehearsal," and will be at Barnes & Noble at MarketFair on Thursday to talk about it and sign copies.
   With a marketing career and motherhood already keeping her occupied, Ms. O’Connell recalled the process that led her to becoming a published author.
   "It was around the time ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ (the book by British author Helen Fielding, followed by the 2001 movie) came out," she explained. "While I was on the treadmill, I would think about these novels that were about young women like me and like my friends.
   "I had a dream that I was on ‘The Bachelor’. This was also when the ‘reality dating show’ thing started to heat up," Ms. O’Connell said.
   The idea of a married woman with children finding herself on a reality dating show intrigued her. It is, as she described it, the opportunity to find out "whether the grass is greener on the other side."
   These thoughts led to her sitting down to write her first novel, "Bachelorette #1," in which married free-lance writer Sarah Divine Holmes goes undercover as a single woman to research a story on a television dating show, changing her critical view after getting to know the participants.
   "I was very lucky," said Ms. O’Connell. "I began writing ("Bachelorette #1") on Nov. 5, 2002, and looked for an agent while I was writing. It took two months. I finished the book in January 2003, sold it (to New American Library, a division of Penguin Group) in February and it was published in August of 2003."
   She modestly attributed the speed with which her first book came to print as the publisher’s desire to ride the wave of popularity of reality dating shows.
   "Dress Rehearsal," also published by the same company and now in book stores, tells the story of a single career woman, Lauren Gallagher, owner of "Boston’s hottest cake boutique," who is convinced she can predict whether her customers’ marriages will succeed or fail based on their behavior while choosing a wedding cake.
   Ms. O’Connell has a quick and witty prose style, sprinkled with references to popular culture. Her heroine sits on Ikea chairs but longs for Pottery Barn furniture and Calphalon pots as much as she dreams of marriage with the right man.
   Although she has never taken a writing course, Ms. O’Connell said she has done a lot of writing in her marketing work and as a child "always loved books." After graduating Smith College, while living in Cambridge and Boston, she enrolled in the Radcliffe Publishing Program and for a time considered becoming an editor.
   She shows a real talent for plot and dialogue as she depicts the adventures of Ms. Gallagher and her two friends from their Wellesley College days —- utilizing her familiarity with the Boston area by placing her heroine’s cake boutique on Boston’s Commonwealth Avenue.
   Paige is a fashionable real estate agent, engaged to Steve, an earth science professor who favors khakis and shops from the L. L. Bean catalogue. Lauren doubts they are well suited, a perception greatly enhanced by their cake selections. Paige dreams of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Steve favors descending tiers of cupcakes with marzipan fish as being more "meaningful," as they had met while scuba diving.
   Rounding out the trio is Robin, who was deserted by her husband and now gives women’s seminars in relationship recovery titled "SCALPEL: Cutting Out the Man Who Ripped Out Your Heart" while still obsessed with her ex-husband.
   New American Library lists "Dress Rehearsal" on its Web site under the heading of "chick lit."
   There are many definitions of just what places a novel in the "chick lit" genre, though they are most easily recognizable visually by their pastel pink and turquoise covers sprinkled with such single woman icons as shopping bags, shoes and martini glasses.
   Ms. O’Connell described this category as "contemporary stories about contemporary women." They are usually humorous —- "these novels don’t take themselves too seriously, without belittling the women." And they often contain "conflict between career and family."
   She welcomes having the term applied to her books.
   "It doesn’t bother me," she said. "It makes it easier for people to find books similar to things they like. It filled a void between young adult books like Judy Blume’s and those by Jackie Collins and Judith Krantz."
   Kara Cesare, senior editor at New American Library, worked with Ms. O’Connell on the editing of "Dress Rehearsal." She has been in the publishing industry for eight years.
   "We have a lot of young, talented female writers," she said, "but Jennifer stood out with how she nails relationships between women. She is one of our first really strong chick lit writers."
   How does Ms. Cesare define the genre?
   "For lack of a better word, I think chick lit is a way to label books people feel will appeal to young women’s fiction readers in their 20s and 30s. The generation of women who grew up on TV shows such as ‘Friends,’ ‘90210,’ ‘Melrose Place,’ and obviously ‘Sex in the City’ set a new sensibility for modern women, and Bridget Jones was one of the first breakout characters in this genre to appeal to that sensibility."
   There are a growing number of subcategories to "chick lit," said Ms. Cesare.
   "Jennifer O’Connell’s ‘Dress Rehearsal’ is a great example of bridal lit, which is basically chick lit set in the fun and dramatic world of brides and weddings," she said.
   There is also "mommy lit," she added, which deals with characters experiencing pregnancy and motherhood, and "lady lit," which she defined as "light women’s fiction for women over 30."
   "New American Library is very committed to growing authors in chick lit and women’s fiction," said Ms. Cesare.
   Author O’Connell said it is unfortunate that some reviewers look down on this genre.
   "Anything that gets people to read is good," she said.
   Ms. O’Connell is already at work on her third novel and also finds time to teach a writing class at Harper College in "Writing Contemporary Women’s Fiction." She would like some day to expand into writing books for teenagers and young adults. As a teenager, she enjoyed books by Norma Klein, whose characters she described as "intelligent, sassy, fun girls dealing with high school life who are strong and independent."
   She sees "chick lit" as appealing to a variety of women, including but not limited to those who are single.
   "My first book was about a married woman and ‘Dress Rehearsal’ has a character who’s been divorced," said Ms. O’Connell. "A lot of women in their 30s have been married and are divorced. Everybody thinks these books are all about a girl looking for a guy but, in reality, there are a variety of women portrayed."
   "They’re enjoyable and fun, verging on silly," she said of her books, "but I try to include a nugget of truth." Rather than being about the meaning of life, she said, the books women enjoy reading can be about "the meaning of their life."
Jennifer O’Connell will be on hand to introduce her new novel, "Dress Rehearsal," on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble at MarketFair, 3535 U. S. Route 1 South, West Windsor. The book-signing is sponsored by the Smith Club of Princeton. For information, call (609) 716-1570.