The Cinderella Syndrome
January 17th 2007 09:41
www.randomhouse.com
Can anybody explain to me why books that deal with the Cinderella Syndrome are so popular? I have started reading Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. The rave reviews I have heard about this book for more than a year now, both in print and first hand, led me to believe this was something special. But no more than two chapters into this book and I had a feeling of déjà vu. Much like the one I had while reading Bryce Courtney’s Jessica a few years ago … I have heard this story before!
Image: swansea.gov.uk
OK, the setting and time is different, but no matter how you look at these stories, they are the age old story of Cinderella. I’ll be the first to say that Cinderella is a great story (look how long it has lasted), but I do get a little tired of finding it passed off as something new, in a hand that is nothing but ordinary. I have come across old themes in new books before and have no problems dealing with them if they are written with a talented, clever hand. But to use the poor, hard done to, helpless, yet beautiful girl (again) simply to hook an audience is becoming a little too common for my liking.
So what is it about this type of character that hooks readers like the proverbial fish? Do we really enjoy reading about somebody who is trodden on like garbage and no matter how good they are, life serves them up to people who are hell bent on making things even worse?
I swallowed it when I was eight years old, and I even swallowed it (with gusto) in my late teens when I read the Virginia Andrews series Flowers In The Attic, but I’m sorry, I swallow it no more.
Geisha is disguised as a cultural novel that treats us to the secret world of the honoured ‘Geisha’ of Japanese culture. Young Chiyo, a beautiful young child of a poor fishing village, is ear-marked (sold) for the life of a Geisha when a local business man realises she will soon be an orphan. Of course there is money to be made here and a life of hard-ship for Chiyo. This is clear very early on, so bleeding-hearts are hooked. Much the same recipe is used for the other two books I’ve mentioned, and a multitude of other copy-cats out there. In truth, they have snatched the girl from the hearth, along with her fairy god-mother and replanted her in a best-seller. If this is what you like, then Geisha will not disappoint you, in fact it will delight you, just like it has a huge international audience.
Sorry, not this little fish!
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