Chick lit books have a huge audience, with multiple sequels and movie adaptations coming out daily. Some of the chick lit authors, such as Candace Bushnell and Helen Fielding, are celebrities themselves. It was only a matter of time before men got their own fun book genre, called lad lit. Nick Hornby is considered to be the father of lad lit, ever since his first published book, Fever Pitch, took the world by storm. Unfortunately, there haven’t been many authors contributing to this field, but the genre may be saved by an emerging author called Dan Begley.
Dissecting Chick Lit
Dan Begley’s debut novel Ms. Taken Identity is an extremely funny, entertaining read. It tells a story of Mitch Samuels, a serious college professor whose life is spiralling out of control. He does not get the respect he deserves in the classroom, his girlfriend just dumped him and his manuscript cannot seem to find a publisher. However, when he accidentally bumps into Katharine Longwell, a best-selling chick lit author, he instinctively lies about having a cousin who just wrote a chick lit novel herself. Katharine’s enthusiasm to help his cousin get her book published leads Mitch into a variety of sticky situations that finally make him more of a man than he thought he could ever be.
The author obviously likes to play with already-established rules and stereotypes. He manages to successfully dissect the genre of chick lit and its appeal to women. At the same time, he manages to point out that the lines between the literature written for men and the one written for women are blurry, at best, which could mean that although men and women seem to come from different planets, they are fundamentally the same and in need of love and approval.
A Fresh Start
It is the vibrant characters that make this novel so amusing. Mitch is a great protagonist, a sort of person everybody has been like at one point or another. The ending finds him a changed man, yet still true to his values. His relationship with his father plays an important role in the story, hinting to the importance of communication. Finally, the romance part of the novel is not too corny or pathetic, instead executed with a dose of restraint, which works very well.
Dan Begley’s debut effort Ms. Taken Identity is a well-done, entertaining lad lit novel, a great testament to the author’s talents. It will be very surprising if Ms. Taken Identity does not make the bestseller list, since not reading this book is missing out on a lot of fun.
- Publisher: 5 Spot (June 22, 2009)
- ISBN-10: 0446506184
- ISBN-13: 978-0446506182
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