"Dead, Brutalized Women Sell Books"

Robin Agnew

I imagine many of us have seen the Guardian piece about reviewer/writer Jessica Mann's refusal to review any more of the almost pornographically violent books which are at the present moment bestsellers.  The article and the response on Salon.com singles out female writers (though there are certainly male writers I can think of who fit the bill).  The writers specifically mentioned were Tess Gerritsen, Mo Hayder, Karin Slaughter and Kathy Reichs.

There are several issues at play here, I think, and the article caught my attention because at Bouchercon there was a panel devoted to "Telling Women's Stories", where the ultra violent books were mentioned repeatedly by the panelists as undesireable.  I contacted Mary Saums, who was on this panel and seemed to have especially strong views, and here's some of what she had to say: "Tess Gerristsen commented on Sarah Weinman's blog that writers who want to sell books should listen to what women want, and I agree,  What she hears from women is very different from what I hear, that they're so happy to find mysteries without graphic insane violence." 

Natasha Cooper, quoted in the original article, put it another way:  "There is a general feeling that women writers are less important than male writers and what can save and propel them onto the bestseller list is if they produce at least one novel with very graphic violence in it to establish their credibility and prove they are not girly."  Do these women then hate their sex, or are they looking for a career?  As my own husand remarked, in a sadly casual manner,"What works in popular culture is dead women."

So some of this is actually about sales and respect, and some of it is about the level of violence.  In my humble opinion, it's a phase, and merely a small segment of crime fiction.  As a bookseller, I can tell you that the energizer bunnies of bookselling are not the big bestsellers (some of whom we don't even carry because they are so heavily discounted elsewhere) but the vast array of cozies, also written by women.  Men may win many of the awards, but women are writing the books that people are reading, on both ends of the scale.

There's a reason that some of our bestselling authors are named (we sell lots of used books) Christie, Stout, Allingham, Doyle and Sayers.  Eventually people come back to good writing and well told stories.  I don't imagine that will ever change, no matter what form books eventually take.  Saums also commented "Gentle readers have a right to their own reading preferences, just as much as gore lovers do."  True.  But I also am a fan of the writers mentioned in the article, especially Slaughter, Gerristsen and Hayder, who are often pushing boundaries and creating interesting characters.  Sometimes I just skip the ultra violent parts, and read on ahead.  For me, the good stories there are worth it.

I'm probably not reading the number of violent books that reviewer Jessica Mann is reading, however.  I can pick and choose what I read, and I like a variety.  To be fed a steady diet of this kind of thing would indeed make me weary and probably angry.  I just think there's a bigger pictture.  Mary Saums also said (she's a passionate woman):"It's the tired-ass cliche of Weak Stupid Woman Must be Mutilated that bothers me.  No amount of high-and-mighty bullshit from bestselling authors, male or female, justify bringing more of those horrors in the world."  While Saums and Mann may skip the books, and I just skip the "yucky" parts, it's a readers choice.

I had an ephiphany earlier this year when I paired a well known male thriller writer with an ultra cozy writer.  He was selling a big stack of hardbacks - but we sold through her stack as well, and I realized that for every one of the male writer's books, we would ultimately sell 5 of the type this female writer produces.  Maybe not five by her specifically, but five cozies.  Everyone has their own taste.  As a bookseller all I can do is push the books I happen to like.  As a reviewer, Mann has taken the same stance.  For the rest of you, read at will.

Comments

[Lartonmedia]

I've got a lot of sympathy with Mann. I haven't consciously declined to review any of those books -- I just don't remember when I last read one! I have plenty of others demanding to be reviewed, so I can pick and choose.

[LKC]

I actually wrote about my own stance--as a writer and a reader--on this stuff (torture porn) a while back. Like you, I skip the scenes. You know when they're coming, so it's not that hard. On the other hand, I like the stories *around* the gore, so I keep reading the books, even if I won't read the scenes.

[Max Allan Collins]

When I was approached to write a trio of CRIMINAL MINDS novels, I was struck by the preponderence of female victims on the TV series -- often tortured, raped, brutalized in various ways. (Several of the leads are young women, which does provide a certain balance.) I attempted to minimize that in the three CRIMINAL MINDS novels, though serial killers are usually men and their victims usually women, so we'll just say I did what I could.

But what really blew me away, when I started checking out the fan sites (and then later when e-mails came in) is how many of the CRIMINAL MINDS fans are young women exactly of the type butchered on the show. I'm doing at least two serial killer novels for Kensington, with my CSI collaborator Matthew Clemens, and we are told that the audience for these novels is predominantly female.

Risking being glib, I'll point out that if women didn't want to read about women being murdered, men and women would write less about that subject.

[Robin Agnew]

Obviously there's no easy answer. Skipping; editing; but Max is right - people apparently want it. For myself Karin Slaughter is actually one of my favorite writers, as is Val McDermid, but not for the gore. My own 18 yr. old daughter is a big L & O SVU fan which can be pretty gross.

[Dana King]

I was one of a handful of men at the "Writing for Women" panel at Bouchercon. One point continues to astound, confuse, and irritate me. When it was pointed out that women are the primary readers of such books, the explanation was offered that women see the killers brought to justice and feel safer. What about the victims that allowed us to get to that point? Incidental collateral damage? There's a disconnect here, and I'm not sure what to think about it.

[Robin Agnew]

I'm not sure either. To me the very best crime writing deals with all the ripples surrounding a crime, which would include the victim, correct? I think sometimes it's a matter of degree. If you're a reader just looking for a fast and furious narrative, I think it's a different kettle of fish. The authors on that panel (Paretsky, Cody, Flora and Saums) certainly all deal with "ripples" or aftermath of crime. The L & O model is more one of justice rather than (usually) feeling bad about the victim. Maybe some people prefer the simple justice route. Easier to deal with mentally if it's just a problem solved rather than being about a person who has been killed.

[kevinrtipple@verizon.net]

Have not read the article mentioned, but, I simply don't read the authors being discussed. Simply because reading them once or twice was way too gross for me. That was years ago. From what I have heard from readers, the books are even worse now.

Kevin R. Tipple
http://kevinrtipple.com/

[Maxine]

Far too many generalisations are going on in this whole debate. You can't generalise about what "men" and "women" read, in my opinion.
Anyway, good post - interesting how much of Jessica Mann's piece was misreported, eg as her giving up reviewing altogether, or that she was against violence in novels. She was speaking out against "sadistic misogyny", which I don't read whether a man or a woman wrote it. Some people write excellent novels that contain a bit of unnecessary graphic horror (eg Jo Nesbo likes to include a set piece or two in his novels); I'm quite happy to read those novels (because they are good) and skip the three or four (out of 400) necessary pages. Other novelists (and I am not mentioning names) write books that are basically sadistic torture porn or explicitly graphic set pieces one after the other, strung together by bland prose - and I don't bother with those at all.

I don't read "cosies" very often, but I have discovered a lot of translated fiction in the past few years, mainly Scandinavian (eg Theorin, Tursten, A Larsson, Fossum, Nesser, S Larsson) and Italian (eg Camilleri) - I like most of these very much (and all the authors mentioned in this sentence).

[Robin Agnew]

I always insist I am not a giant cozy fan myself, but like every other mystery segment, there are well written books that are classified as cozies. Just as there are very bad ones. And I also agree about foreign writers - wonderful work, and for us, our bestselling segment. My favorite discovery of the year was Matt Beynon Rees, whose books are simply outstanding. I recommend his THE COLLABORATOR OF BETHLEHEM very highly.

[Hawi Moore]

This is a great piece of work. I also enjoy reading the comments

[josephine]

Good content is what matters in books.