Happy Endings

Maybe I am becoming an old cynic, but much as the world might be easier if there were more happy endings, life is rarely an experience that brings neat, tidy and prettily parcelled up finales. Such is not the case though in certain types of fiction. I recently read (or I should say listened to, as it was an audio book) a Danielle Steel novel. The reason I did so, was its title, which was "The Dating Game". Not that I was hoping to learn anything about this particular sport, having endured such a wealth of personal experience in the field that I could, and perhaps will, write my own saga. Perhaps I was hoping to get an idea of how a phenomenally successful novelist handled the subject, in order to inform my own as yet somewhat embryonic project.

Anyway I haven't read any Danielle Steel novels or novels of that type for many years and either I had forgotten how bad they were or my taste has improved. Apologies here to anyone who is a devotee and I don't mean to impugn your taste in reading - horses for courses as they say. But in my case I fell off this particular horse very early in the tale. If the test of a good writer is how well their readers can suspend belief and be persuaded that the world they are being asked to enter is at least a credible one, this writer failed dismally in my case.

Now I know the writer in question as aforementioned is hugely successful, so her vast output clearly appeals to a big audience, so much so that the production and marketing of her work has become an extremely lucrative commercial enterprise, providing a good livelihood no doubt for many people. Perhaps that is the problem though; the money making aspect of the writing has overtaken all else to the point where no-one, not even the writer, seriously expects to create anything of any real worth - or cares. If it sells - hell, sell it and reap the rewards.

I won't bore you with the plot which is fairly straightforward - perfect wife married to perfect husband in a perfect house with two perfect children suddenly gets the heave-ho from the husband who turns out to be having it off with a younger woman. They get divorced and the wife suffers, for a while, until she moves to another perfect house in another part of the country, a dream job falls into her lap, she has a few dates, a love affair with a younger man (perfect too except she decides he's too young to marry, so dumps him). After at the most 3 blind dates, she goes on and on ad nauseum about how terrible and painful they were and how she could never bring herself, ever, to date again - all men are hopeless wankers and she must therefore be alone for the rest of her life having reached the ripe old age of 48 (but of course still radiantly beautiful). Embracing loneliness is too hard also, so she decides to adopt a baby to keep her company (get a dog I feel like shouting by this stage!). The perfect baby soon appears, the adoption goes off without a hitch, she manages both her perfect job and the baby without even smudging a nail. The perfect daughter then marries a perfect older man, who just happens to have a best friend who, you guessed it, is perfect for our heroine in every way. He is so impressed by her great humanity in adopting the baby that he falls in love and whisks her off to a life of more endless luxury and perfection. In all this saga, she remains beautiful, even if sad, money is never an issue - everyone is rich, every residence is gorgeous, every holiday glossy magazine fodder and in the end - everyone, and I mean everyone - loves each other. Except for those nasty old blind dates of course but they are consigned to the dust-bin where they belong.

OK, I am not becoming - I already am an inveterate old cynic - and maybe in this disastrous world we live in, a bit of escapism is harmless. But please, if you're going to write about the dating game, let's at least write it about real people and real life and don't try and convince people who are really struggling with pain, rejection and loneliness that they should expect to fine a facile solution and one day live happily ever after!