I'm in the throes of reading A Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy, which I won't manage to finish in time for my reading group tomorrow -- sorry, girls. I set out enthusiastically and found myself absolutely gripped by the description of the lives and living conditions of Hispanic women in 1960s America, where the chief currency was sex and violence. Connie's shocking journey from a life which is bearable, but only just, to life in a lunatic asylum that is completely intolerable, was a difficult but rewarding read.
I'm losing momentum at the moment and what is slowing me down is this: the book takes a sudden leap into the parallel universe of a strange Utopian society set 150 years in the future. I'm sure that this will provide Piercey with a fantastic vehicle for exploring the shortcomings of our own world, but for me it has lost resonance. It seems hypothetical. I'm uncomfortable with fantasy writing because it is a fictional format that is often governed by expedience : the writer needs something to happen to resolve an issue in the story and hey presto - it does. There is less creative tension between form and plot and the adversities facing the characters seem artificial.
What I'm trying to say in a rather convoluted way is that I find it difficult to identify with fantasy writing and the fantasy element in A Woman At the Edge of Time. Perhaps I find it hard to suspend my disbelief, but I am conscious of a growing barrier between me and the story. I may plough onto the end, but on the other hand, I may not.
This is something you should bear in mind when you are writing - it is really important that your readers are able to identify with your characters and the situation in which they find themselves, so pick on people and plots they will recognise and respond to, otherwise you will lose them, and all your hard work will result in a shrug of the shoulders and a feeling of - whatever!
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