Dave wrote:
"It's a fun book, pure hardboiled, smooth and professionally
written, and unlike some other books I've read with a first
person POV from a woman written by a guy, you're not thinking
while you're reading this that a guy wrote it. . . . One
thing that I found kind of amusing (and doesn't detract from
the book) is Collins having his woman PI constantly
describing everybodies wardrobe (as well as her own frequent
wardrobe changes) to drive home the point that this is a
woman's POV."
I'm halfway through it and my take is opposite of yours. I'm
having a lot of trouble believing hers is a female voice. I
was a fan of the comic, but the novel form seems to me to
highlight the cardboardness of this female who is more male
than males (for instance, the target practice scene). And I
have found bits like the fashion notes heavyhanded, a poor
substitute for deeper characterization.
This is not to say I'm not enjoying it (although I'll be very
disappointed if the who whodunnit is who I've thought it is
since about 20 pages in, even before I knew what was done),
but it has gotten me thinking about the difference between a
male and female voice.
What makes a voice female or male, and must one be of that
gender to pull it off, especially in the first person? Based
on my entirely unscientific sampling, women are more
convincing writing male 1st than vice versa. After all the
male voice is by far the dominant one in our society, and
certainly in our area of lit, so women have a lot of exposure
to it, whereas many of the pockets of society (and media)
where the female voice is dominant can be ignored or
consciously avoided and/or ridiculed. So there are many women
who have written convincingly as men, from Leigh Brackett to
Sandra Scoppetone as Jack Early (and am I the only one who
has come to suspect any author with intials instead of a name
is more likely to be a women, like JA Jance?). But, as Dave
points out, few men can write first person female
convincingly, the first two Nina Zero books (all I've read by
Eversz) among the few.
Of course, this still begs the question of what distinguishes
male and female voices.
Mark
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