I suppose 'This Little Life' and 'Brick Lane' both have things in common in that they have a female protagonist very much at the centre of the story, and they're subjectively told.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I have seen and really liked the varied movie adaptations of the book, but 'Little Women' has a sprawling, richly tangled story that needs time and space to weave its magic.
'Little Women' has interesting gender connotations. There are generations of women who love the book. But there are a lot of men who think it's sentimental, gooey stuff.
An author's life is different, complex, and ongoing, while a character's remains frozen in one little story.
It's really important to me not to be a snob about age division or about genre or whatever. The story needs to be what the story needs to be.
In terms of 'Beyond the Lights' and 'Belle,' they're definitely stories about identity. They're female empowerment stories. So I'm exploring that through my work.
Don Quixote is one that comes to mind in comparison to mine, in that they both involve journeys undertaken by older men. That is unusual, because generally the hero of a journey story is very young.
I can't imagine writing a book without some strong female characters, unless that was a demand of the setting.
I've sort of dealt with the characters' lives more; particularly the women characters.
I'm interested in female friendships and family relationships. So I don't write the traditional romance, where you just have the hero and the heroine's love story. I like intertwining relationships.
There is a common theme, though, in the stories I have told, which are usually associations of characters or families that are formed outside of a family circle.
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