Aug
12
So in the last while I’ve been noticing something entirely unusual. Man lit. (More trademarking!) Lots of it. In reprints and on its way to a bookstore near you. Peculiar.
Humour me.
Average Joe writes a blog about average day as being a father. Average Joe’s day includes, among other things, hockey, young son, and “hot wife.” Average Joe’s writing of average day gets noticed by more-than-average publisher. Before you know it, Average Joe blogs about tentative titles for his life-as-a-father story as beyond-average book deal is in the works. Average Joe settles on Rage Against the Meshuganah as the book’s final title.
Average Jane is flummoxed.
Again.
Average Joe writes engaging op ed for The New York Times about the more-astonishing-than-average perils of working in construction. Average Joe aptly titles his letter as “The Sky Really is Falling” which is a great hook and clever contradiction of how Average Joe’s writing actually unfolds (or builds). Average Joe’s byline is that Average Joe is coming out with a book called The Orangutan, also a great hook and contradiction, about Average Joe’s life as a nothing-average-about-it construction-worker-aspiring-writer who bounces back from being hospitalized and incarcerated, and then into a loving relationship complete with house pets.
Average Jane is intrigued.
Again.
Average Joe is shopping his book Puppy Chow is Better Than Prozac for a second reprint. Average Joe’s writing is a tad flatter-than-average, but Average Joe’s story is anything but. After being diagnosed with Manic Depression and having his world fall apart, Average Joe rebuilds his life above-average-heights with a help of black Lab that seems to simultaneously lift and ground Average Joe, and hence, Average Joe’s story with a fresh new book deal with the Perseus publishing imprint Da Capo.
Average Jane is impressed.
Why?
Because Average Jane loves that the Average Joe has a voice. That the Average Joe is not necessarily an accomplished writer–good humoured, well tempered, and without fault. Average Jane loves that Average Joe is human and is ready to experience the not-so-average-and-yet-universal human aspect of life as a biography, and not as fiction; as the architecture, and not just the foundation.
On the whole, Average Janes enjoy this kind of story-telling. Chapters about private thoughts and feelings. Sections of hardship and of being humbled. Glimpses of care and relationship. By learning how to fail (in their lives), Average Joe has succeeded: Average Joes everywhere are now penning their diaries, and Average Janes would love nothing more than to learn how Average Joe ticks; troubled, brooding, loving, but most of all, on how they become a changed and better man. Better than average. Better than the Average Joe.
It gives Average Janes hope–that changing the Average Joe can be a reality. Even if it is one page at a time.
Comments
i’d like to note that your examples are average joes who’ve achieved personal change on their own - not to be confused with the “project-boyfriends” that some of us average janes have fallen for in the past, hoping that we had the ability to change them. although it always helps to have a stable relationship, like that of a puppy.
I wrote this post in response to a “book table” I saw at Chapters titled “Rehab Lit.” Surprisingly, nearly all the books featured on the table were penned by men (overcoming some sort of demon). I thought it was interesting that somehow, if Chapters only (and not a publishing PR stunt in general), identified some kind of genre.
What I was trying to get at, is yes, these men did make an effort on their own to become better beings, but for a female reader of these books, it might instill a bit of hope that the men they may or may not be invested in have the potential to become better beings, outside their help, but hopefully, still in their arms.
P.S. - “project-boyfriend” sounds a lot friendlier than “fixer-upper,” which I hate to admit, was used liberally among friends and I not that long ago….