Friday, January 17, 2014

Five of the best fictional tropes

At The Barnes & Noble Book Blog Molly Schoemann-McCann tagged five of the best--and more familiar--tropes in fiction, including:
The Plain Jane Who Gets Her Man

In the seminal gothic romance Jane Eyre, our heroine literally is a plain Jane—but the well-worn story of the less-than-conventionally attractive (or even “ugly-duckling”) heroine who nonetheless manages to ride off into the sunset with some Grade-A, Top-Sirloin Romantic Hero Beefcake didn’t stop there; both classic and contemporary novels are full of the old standby. From sad-sack Bridget Jones in Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, who feels totally insecure about her looks and yet manages to win the affection of dreamboat Mark Darcy, to Jennifer Weiner’s dowdy underdog heroine Cannie Shapiro in Good In Bed, to the unlikely love affair between frumpy middle-aged Lenny Abramov and the beautiful young ingĂ©nue Eunice Park in Gary Shteyngart’s blistering modern dystopian tale Super Sad True Love Story, stories in which inner beauty is recognized (and rewarded with well-deserved hot lovin’) is something I’ll always be a sucker for.
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue