Still Life and Still Life (A Favorite Books Post)

From personal experience, I know authors struggle with what to title their books. The goal is to give readers a sense of what the book is about and to choose something memorable, but not so memorable it gets used too often, possibly creating confusion when the reader searches for the book. (In the U.S., titles are not copyrightable, so any number of authors and publishers can use the same title.) Two of my favorite thrillers have the same title: Still Life.

Still Life by Joy Fielding 

Casey Marshall is a businesswoman who suffers severe injuries from being hit by a car. She's plunged into a coma, but she gradually becomes aware of what's happening around her. She can hear, at least some of the time, but can't move, see, or communicate. Despite that, Fielding makes her a proactive main character who does everything she can within the (significant) limits placed upon her. I found every moment fascinating as Casey begins to realize the people she loves might not be quite who she thought they were, and the "accident" may have been an attempt on her life.

Still Life by Louise Penny

Like Joy Fielding's book, I couldn't put this one down. It is a more traditional suspense novel in that there is a detective--Chief Inspector Gamache. Yet it is distinctive in several ways. While Casey exists almost in a vacuum due to her coma, the mystery here is grounded in Three Pines, a small town in Canada that almost becomes a character in itself. The residents include an accomplished aging poet, several artists, a former psychologist turned bookstore owner, and proprietors of a beautiful bistro that is also an antique shop. The murder victim is a beloved long-time resident of the town, murdered just after she's been brave enough at last to enter a painting in an art show and has learned she's been accepted. She has no enemies that anyone's aware of, and no one can imagine who would kill her.

Point of View

Joy Fielding's book is told from a single point of view, that of Casey Marshall. The reader knows only what Casey hears and understands. Louise Penny's novel is told from multiple points of view, sometimes within the same scene, which at first I found a bit distracting. In the end, though, seeing the town, the crime, and the resolution from so many viewpoints added layers to the story. It also added to my desire to live in Three Pines, or at least visit regularly.

The Meaning of the Title

The most obvious meaning of the title of the Joy Fielding book is that the protagonist is literally still, due to her coma, and yet is more alive than anyone realizes. Still Life also reflects some of Casey's realizations about her pre-coma life.

In the Louise Penny book, the title in part refers to the artists in the town and their work. But it also reflects aspects of life in the town in ways that shed light on the mystery.

Tone and Title

Still Life by Joy Fielding is tense and suspenseful, with little relief from Casey's fear. Still Life by Louis Penny has a mixed tone. Despite beginning in an atmosphere somewhat like that of a cozy mystery, the people and events have dark sides and twists. A few times I found the humor a bit buffoonish given the darkness of the story as a whole; however, I enjoyed the book so much it didn't matter.

If you enjoy suspense or mysteries, I highly recommend both Still Lifes. They are among my favorite thrillers of all time.

The Second Mr. de Winter: What If Genders Were Reversed In Rebecca?

My lawyer book group (read more about the lawyer book group here) recently read Daphne Du Maurier’s classic, Rebecca. The book is a suspense/thriller about a young woman who marries a widower whose first wife was lost at sea. After the narrator marries Max de Winter, she becomes mistress of Manderley, a mansion in an isolated area. Roughly twenty years younger than her husband and of a different social class, she feels constantly overshadowed by her predecessor, Rebecca, and nervous around his family and staff. She is constantly told how beautiful, engaging, and personable the first Mrs. De Winter (Rebecca) was. Her husband is distant, and the narrator becomes convinced that Max never loved her but married her as a balm for his grief. The mood darkens as questions about Rebecca’s character and death emerge.

After discussing the book, I started  thinking about whether the story would change were the characters’ genders reversed. I've tried not to include too many spoilers in my thoughts below, but if you haven't read Rebecca, proceed with caution.

• The age difference between the narrator and de Winter would be a more pivotal part of the story and would be addressed directly if Maggie de Winter, a fortyish widow, married a young male about twenty years old. As written, while a few comments are made about Max marrying a “young bride,” and the narrator’s youth combined with her social class makes her uncomfortable running Manderley, the age difference is rarely remarked upon. Further, no one questions that the narrator in Rebecca truly loves with Max de Winter. Understanding her actions at the end of the book turns on that. Readers might speculate far more about whether a young male narrator with no resources of his own married Maggie de Winter solely for her money.
• If the first spouse were named Reginald rather than Rebecca, he might never have married. We eventually learn that Max de Winter was shocked and revolted when soon after their marriage Rebecca told him of horrible things she had done and expected to continue to do. While not spelled out, her “awful” behavior is that she was sexually active. Given the desire to continue to have multiple sexual partners, a man in the 1930s would be more likely to be able to support himself or to have inherited money or property, making it less likely that he would choose to enter a relationship that is by definition monogamous. Also, it seems more likely Reginald’s sexual exploits would have been forgiven or at least tolerated even after marriage, thus avoiding the central conflict between de Winter and Spouse No. 1. 

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• The issue that most enrages de Winter—that Rebecca might have a baby that is not his who would then inherit his estate—also would disappear for biological reasons. If Reginald had sex resulting in progeny, Maggie de Winter would know the child was not hers, nor would the child inherit from Maggie.

• The underlying premise of the book would fail. Next to the opening line about Manderley, the most well-known aspect of Rebecca is that the reader never learns the narrator’s name. When she is named at all, she is the "second Mrs. De Winter." (Rebecca at least gets a first name, as well as having the novel named after her, though we don't know what her last name was before de Winter.) One of the most striking scenes to me is when the narrator answers her first call at Manderley and, when the caller asks for Mrs. de Winter, says in confusion that Mrs. de Winter is dead. All of that changes if a male narrator marries Maggie de Winter, whose first spouse was named Reginald. First, “de Winter” probably wasn’t Maggie’s name, as she no doubt changed hers to her husband’s when she married the first time. So Reginald’s first and last name become known, and Maggie’s original last name is unknown. Second, when Maggie married again, she almost certainly would have changed her last name to the male narrator’s. And if she didn’t, it’s highly unlikely the male narrator would change his to match hers. Even today, 70-80% of women in the U.S. take their husband’s last name on marriage, and I could not find statistics on how many men take their wives’ last names (so I’m guessing not many). In short, a book about a "second Mr. de Winter" would be far more likely to be about, say, the son of a president than the second spouse of an older, well-to-do woman. 

• Finally, were the book named Reginald rather than Rebecca and the protagonist male, the book might have gotten a better reception from critics. Critics dismissed Rebecca as a romance and of no consequence. Happily for du Maurier, readers loved it, and Alfred Hitchcock, master of suspense, made it into a movie. Published in 1938, the book is considered a classic and has never gone out of print. As I write this, out of over 20 million paperback books on Amazon, Rebecca’s Amazon Best Seller rank is 4,248.

Are you interested in more discussions of books and films in the mystery, occult, suspense, and thriller genres? Join my Readers Group and receive the M.O.S.T. e-newsletter.

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Lisa M. Lilly is the author of the occult thrillers The Awakening and The Unbelievers, Books 1 and 2 in the Awakening series. A short film of the title story of her collection The Tower Formerly Known as Sears and Two Other Tales of Urban Horror was recently produced under the title Willis Tower. 

Stranger Danger, Comic Con and Girls Gone Gore

Last month I  presented a panel, Girls Gone Gore, at Comic Con Chicago with author Carrie Green. The first time we met, Carrie and I talked about how both of us have had people suggest that because we write horror/suspense/thrillers, we ought to consider using our initials or male pen names. The idea that readers believe male authors more likely to write good horror is nothing new. As I learned when I researched for the panel, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein originally was published with the author listed as Anonymous. Everyone assumed it was written by a man.

Why the bias toward men still survives is puzzling considering the success of Frankenstein, as well as of works by other women horror writers like Shirley Jackson (The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House). But something Carrie pointed out on our panel is that when women write horror, suspense or thrillers, it's often called something else. I read The Lottery in English class, and a lot of people read Frankenstein in school as well.  So these horror tales are called literature, not horror.  (I don't know why there needs to be distinction between the two, but that's a whole other post.)  Happily, when I asked the audience of about 40-50 for our panel what they thought, most did not seem to care if authors were male or female, they were just looking for good books.  One young woman said she hoped women would not use pen names or initials because she actively looks for women writers.  She believes they are more likely to develop the characters' interior lives than are men, and that's something she likes in fiction.

Another thing we talked about is the portrayal of women as victims. Based on a lot of popular movies, TV and fiction, one would think strangers are a great danger to women. Curious about how reality and fiction match, I checked the FBI website. It turns out over 75% of homicide victims are men, not women.  (There is one exception. Serial killers, who are rare in real life, are more apt to target women.)  Even more interesting to me was that men, not women, are more likely to be killed by strangers.  Women are more likely to be killed by people they know. Specifically, husbands, boyfriends, and relatives. Which led me to comment that despite what we see on TV, the most dangerous thing for a woman to do probably is not to walk down a dark alley, but to get married.

The Comic Con panel attendees, many of whom are Buffy fans (as am I), were great to talk with on this point. These readers want to see strong women characters. They love reading about and watching on film girls and women who are portrayed as three-dimensional characters in all type of roles, including as heroes.

And the more such books and films and TV shows sell, the more of them there will be.

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Lisa M. Lilly is the author of Amazon occult bestseller The Awakening.  A short film of the title story of her collection The Tower Formerly Known as Sears and Two Other Tales of Urban Horror was recently produced under the title Willis Tower.  Her poems and short fiction have appeared in numerous print and on-line magazines, including Parade of Phantoms, Strong Coffee, and Hair Trigger.  She is currently working on The Awakening, Book II: The Unbelievers.

The Awakening for Kindle: http://bit.ly/15bViBm

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