Thu 11 Dec 2008
NORA ROBERTS – Midnight Bayou.
Jove; paperback reprint; first printing, December 2002. Hardcover edition: Putnam, October 2001.
I may or may not have mentioned this recently, but among other things, I collect gothic paperback romances. In the decade from roughly 1965 to 1975, they were immensely popular, with a thousand or more different titles published. Every publisher did several a month, or so it seemed, and readers must have gobbled them down like candy.
Eventually historical romances took over, “bodice-rippers” as they were called for a long time, and the gothics died away, never quite completely, but never again to make a sustained comeback. (Novels of romantic suspense — heroines in jeopardy — are still with us, and seem to be rising in popularity, but without the overtones of the weird and occult, most of them cannot be properly called gothics.)
Some books hover right on the borderline, and this latest romantic novel from Nora Roberts is one of them. The prologue certainly has all of the right elements, beginning with the rape and murder of a young woman by her husband’s twin brother in Louisiana’s turn-of-last century’s bayou country. Her young daughter is left alive, but abandoned to her mother’s backwoods family, she’s forcibly separated from her father’s heritage, rightfully hers.
It’s a strong, intense start, and the ghosts of the past that still haunt Manet Hall in the year 2002 are what keeps the book loosely in the gothic genre. But it’s largely the story of two modern-day lovers, Boston raised-and-born Declan Fitzgerald, Manet Hall’s new owner, determined to refurbish it, and Angelina Simone, Cajun descendant of the young murdered woman and her infant daughter.
Nora Roberts writes romance (if not sublimated lust) that simply oozes with electric tension on the printed page, with dialogue that continually crackles with chemistry and wit. It’s hard to imagine more perfect people than Declan and Angelina; even their flaws are perfect. This is the stuff of fantasy.
As for the ghost story, it’s chilling at first, but it fades in significance in comparison with Declan’s efforts to persuade Angelina that he’s the man for her, then it collapses altogether with no logic behind which spirit is doing what and for what reason.
Well, most of the old-fashioned gothics ended in much the same way, the hints of mysticism waved away, and wedding bells in the offing. Nora Roberts just may have you believing it all, however, especially during the telling. It’s no wonder she’s one of the most popular authors writing today.
[UPDATE] 12-11-08. And of course she still is today, and if possible, even more so. Quoting from her Wikipedia entry:
“Nora Roberts was the first author to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. As of 2006, her novels had spent a combined 660 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, including 100 weeks in the number-one spot. Over 280 million copies of her books are in print, including 12 million copies sold in 2005 alone. Her novels have been published in 35 countries.”
The best bibliography, with the most covers, is as usual at the UK FantasticFiction website. Go and prepare to be amazed. (But not if the numbers in the previous paragraph have sunk in.)
Also, from HollywoodReporter.com: “October 27, 2008. Lifetime has lined up big-name talent for the first two of its four upcoming movie adaptations of Nora Roberts novels. […] Jerry O’Connell, Lauren Stamile and Faye Dunaway lead the cast of Midnight Bayou.”
It looks like perfect casting to me.
December 11th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I remember the big Gothic Romance period! Not because I read any but because I knew a roomful of ladies that as you say “gobbled them down like candy.”
In 1967-1968 I was stationed at Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri(or Little Korea as we called it.) I was assigned to an office that except for me and another soldier, was packed full of middle-aged overweight women. Their favorite occupation was reading gothic romances by the stacks.
I found this funny simply because of the contrast between civilian women and male soldiers. The women reading romances and the men in the barracks reading porno paperbacks, the ones with the pink and yellow back covers and insane covers. Of course, I stood out like a sore thumb because I was reading vintage hard boiled and Rex Stout paperbacks. It never crossed my mind that gothic and porno paperbacks would ever become collectible. But they did.
December 11th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
As a wild guess, I’d say that those old late-60s porno paperbacks are worth more as collectibles than the gothics.
Most of those in the latter category can be found online for less than $3 each, unless you want fine or as new copies.
Those books your buddies read (and probably read to pieces) go for at least double that, and up.
All in all, though, Walker, you (and I) were better off reading and collecting what we did, wouldn’t you say?
— Steve
December 12th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
My wife Jackie is a huge Nora Roberts fan (over 100 of her books read), especially the J. D. Robb future-set police/romance series. I’ve only read one of her books, the one set in Alaska (which I believe will be in the next group of Lifetime movies). It was OK but as with so many books these days could have benefited by cutting 100 pages or so.
December 12th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Being a science fiction fan as well as a mystery reader, I bought all of the J.D.Robb books as they came out. I accumulated quite a few before I discovered that I’d never read any of them. So I stopped buying them, but I figure I’ll still have them to read in my old age.
If not before, of course.
— Steve
PS. Hi to Jackie!