Writers who are not bloggers can have a hostile, exclusionary attitude toward bloggers, these people who just proclaim themselves writers and start writing, without any professional filtering. Then, when a popular blogger gets a writing contract, they might want to cry foul.
You got popular as a writer from blogging, and then you got a book contract because you were popular. No fair!
Cox never had to prove she was a novelist, so that makes her book-shaped-object seem like just a commercial scheme. She had to know this perception would make it hard to get good reviews from the traditional press. It's hard, for different reasons, to write a novel when you're a complete unknown. But at least there's a kind of romantic edge to the struggling-artist life, and in that struggle, you might find art. But to write with the contract and the expectation and the prospect of hostility, that can't feel so good. Cox had to translate the short bursts of humor that worked on Wonkette into something in long form, some story, with a plot. What a drag!
Should I read the book and give you a nontraditional, blogger-friendly review? Sorry. I can't. It's basically a chick-lit book, and I've never been able to get interested in those things -- even the ones that are reputed to be good. I just don't care about stories like that.
MORE: From USAToday:
The novel has a stripped-down story line and limited character development. The plot is predictable and matter-of-fact. But it does have a blunt, albeit tawdry, honesty.
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