on Nov 12th, 2008 
I ran across an article over on EW.com by Stephen King called Who Says Real Men Don’t Read?
Being a female and writer, I like that the market seems to be open to females, which it really wasn’t even twenty or thirty years ago, but I also don’t like the imbalance either way. As a librarian, I want boys to read as much as girls. Then again, it’s kind of obvious they misinterpret the romance/ women’s fiction market (nothing new there). Anyway…thoughts? Weigh in!
Here’s the text:
If you catch publishing types in a ”don’t quote me” mood, they’ll tell you the male audience for fiction is disappearing. Agents and editors are constantly on the lookout for the next hot female writer, and why not? At the end of August, 7 of the 10 New York Times hardcover fiction bestsellers were by women, and that doesn’t even include Stephenie Meyer’s mega-selling Breaking Dawn (which the Times considers kid lit, thus not meriting a place on the adult list).
But, to misquote Mark Twain, reports of the male reader’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Women have chick lit; guys have what my son Joe (as in Joe Hill) calls ”manfiction.” And publishers sell it by the ton. Here’s a concept so simple it’s easy to miss: What men want from an Elmore Leonard novel is exactly what women want from a Nora Roberts novel — escape and entertainment. And while it’s true that manfiction can be guilty of objectifying women, chick lit often does the same thing to men. Reading Sandra Brown or Jodi Picoult, I’m sometimes reminded of an old Julie Brown song, ”I Like ‘Em Big and Stupid.” One memorable couplet goes, ”My father’s out of Harvard, my brother’s out of Yale/Well, the guy I took home last night just got out of jail.”
Is this a bad thing? From an entertainment standpoint, I’d say not. Women like stories in which a gal meets a handsome (and possibly dangerous) hunk on a tropic isle; men like to imagine going to war against an army of bad guys with a Beretta, a blowtorch, and a submachine gun (grenades hung on the belt optional).
And current manfiction certainly gives women a better deal than they got in the pulps of yesteryear, when most were presented as barracuda debs in frilly negligees. Robert B. Parker, who chronicles the hard-bitten exploits of that manfiction avatar Spenser (no first name), is also the creator of Sunny Randall, a PI who has had her own hard-bitten exploits. And while it’s easy to become exasperated with Spenser’s longtime partner, Susan Silverman, sooner or later Spenser and his pal Hawk always spring into action. Often with a .38 or a .12-gauge shotgun.
Alex Delaware, Jonathan Kellerman’s entry in the manfiction sweeps, also has a longtime female companion. Robin Castagna is less annoying than the navel-gazing Ms. Silverman, but both need rescuing from time to time, and saving the damsel in distress has been a satisfying part of good manfiction since the days of old when knights were bold and ladies fair went without their underwear. Also, Alex has a gay sidekick, Milo Sturgis. If that doesn’t make him a 21st-century dude, what does?
The fathers of modern manfiction would be Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and John D. MacDonald, creator of the world’s first boat-bum PI. MacDonald’s Travis McGee ruled the best-seller lists during the years when reading Playboy was still cool, and may have been the first continuing male character to see women as people rather than just as potential bed partners. Not that Travis was any slouch in bed; he specialized in a form of sexual healing mortal men (such as your faithful correspondent) could only admire. In the 21 McGee novels, the guy must have sexually healed over 200 women. Take that, Dr. Laura!
The best current manfiction writers? I’d say Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Richard Stark, and Lee Child. Connelly’s Harry Bosch is a dogged cop who takes on the LAPD power structure as often as the bad guys. His current girlfriend, a very liberated woman, is an FBI agent. Crais’ creations — Elvis Cole and Joe Pike — are as tough as the combat boots they used to wear. Richard Stark’s Parker (also no other name) is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag. In the series’ most recent books he has gained a little warmth thanks to Claire, his own longtime companion.
I saved the best for last. Lee Child’s tough but humane Jack Reacher is the coolest continuing series character now on offer. Reacher has also rescued his share of damsels in distress. He wanders the U.S., sometimes hitchhiking, more often riding buses. He dresses in cheap workingman’s duds bought in chain stores, pays cash, and (this is the part I really love) he used to carry only a toothbrush for luggage. He satisfies the most elemental male daydream, which is at bottom quite sweet: to ramble around and help out when help is needed. Possibly with a Beretta, a blowtorch, and a submachine gun.
Grenades optional.
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An interesting perspective. I honestly think (and how awful is it to say this on a blog, of all places?) that the Internet has killed reading, at least a bit. I know so many men who get all their news and entertainment online. Now, I know a lot of women who do, too, but most of them still read books.
by Eden Bradley November 13th, 2008 at 1:19 pmAnd yes, definitely another misinterpretation of romance and women’s fiction. Most women I know don’t “like ‘em big and stupid”. (Big, yes, stupid, no). I don’t find too many female authors writing that type of hero. Has he actually read Sandra Brown and Jodi Picoult? If he did, he obviously missed the point.
What Eden said.
by Crystal Jordan November 13th, 2008 at 1:21 pmI adore Michael Connolly’s Harry Bosch books.
Mr. Brice will sometimes read my mss but I don’t think he gets them. He oftens finishes and says “It’s good, but it would be even better if there was a nuclear submarine. Ooh, or dinosaurs.”
Um, yeah, because my teenage heroine would be right at home on a submarine. *smacks head*
Mr. Brice rarely reads books anymore now that Tom Clancy’s using ghostwriters these days and Michael Crichton is dead.
by Amanda Brice November 13th, 2008 at 1:47 pmI don’t think SK is saying anything bad here. Both the men in my life read and they read a lot. They just read very different things than I do. The BF reads the manfiction and still manages to love my mss. Then again, most of my mss include monsters and/or sword fights along with the steamy sex and hot relationships.
Guys will always look at things differently than girls and therefore want different things out of their entertainment. Thank God! Otherwise we’d all be bored with one another!
~Mari
by Mari November 13th, 2008 at 1:57 pmWell, in Stephen’s defense, I think he was trying to say that, in quite a few “Chick-Lit” (not my classification, but you know what I mean) novels, the men are frequently clueless or insensitive jerks – and that it is okay. It’s escapism, not rocket science, and so is “Manfiction” (what we used to class as “adventure” when I worked in the bookshop).
I honestly don’t think he is casting aspersions – you know he’s like many of us and reads anything he can get his hands on, including YA and some chick lit. But bear in mind – most of his readers through EW aren’t going to know Jodi Picoult or Sandra Brown from Eve, despite their success. (To be honest, I don’t know which characters he’s referencing from those stories, but I have seen it in other “ChickLit” novels, and it sort of put me off.)
Sadly, I think he used those generalizations to make a quick point – shorthanding, as it were.
But that’s just my opinion.
by MsMenozzi November 13th, 2008 at 2:20 pmYeah, I’m not saying anything against him or even disagreeing with his major points. He did make a few wrong assumptions there.
by Crystal Jordan November 13th, 2008 at 2:22 pmYep, that’s what I was saying, too, Crystal. Sandra Brown and Jodi Picoult don’t write chick lit, so although I agree with MsMenozzi that men in chick lit novels are often depicted in a negative light, it wouldn’t apply to the authors he mentioned.
by Eden Bradley November 13th, 2008 at 2:29 pmI must be really different from most guys then. I still love to read.
In my most recent ‘manfiction’ read the heroine is an FBI agent and a former head of an Hostage and Rescue Team. She’s smart, tough and I love her.
I’ve been reading the Harry Dresden books recently and Harry’s best friend (and I do wish they would admit they’re crazy in love with one another) Karrin Murphy is another very smart, very tough woman.
Even in my escapism I prefer women to girls.
by Rob Graham November 13th, 2008 at 3:15 pmI work at a public library and I have one older gentleman in particular who will not read female authors, because and I quote “they don’t write the way I think.” I like the man, but come on. Open up your mind, dude!
Deidre
by Deidre November 14th, 2008 at 10:49 pmI’m a librarian, Deidre, and being the wicked girl that I am, I’d find a female author who wrote under a man’s name or with initials, recommend the book to him, and see if the guy could even tell the difference.
by Crystal Jordan November 14th, 2008 at 11:11 pmHe once checked out one that had a neutral sounding name, but wouldn’t even finish it due to the way the author described a good looking man, which was not what he was interested in reading about. His words, not mine.
Ugh, sometimes you just wanna scream.
Deidre
by Deidre November 14th, 2008 at 11:40 pm[...] Check it out… grenades optional. [...]
by Crystal Jordan :: Blog » Blog Archive » Did I Mention? November 18th, 2008 at 3:11 amI’m coming to the party late on this one – but I’d also say Bernard Cornwell does a good job with this. His Sharpe series even got made into a long running PBS series that did REALLY well.
Thanks for a great post!
by Francesca Hawley December 18th, 2008 at 8:51 pmFrancesca