Book Review: The Fiction Writer by Jillian Cantor
Olivia is struggling with her writing career when she receives an offer she can’t refuse – ghostwriting. Ash, a millionaire, claims Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is plagiarised from his late grandmother and he hires Olivia to write the ‘truth’. Olivia is soon living with Ash in his Malibu mansion and living her own Rebecca-like life, with Ash showing her a bit too much attention, Ash’s housekeeper giving her the evil eye, drugged drinks, suspicious fires, and speculation that perhaps Ash’s first wife did not die in a car accident as claimed.
I think you need to be at least familiar with Rebecca to read this. I’ve not actually ever read the book but I’ve seen the Hitchcock movie a zillion times (it’s a personal favourite, so the question is, why haven’t I ever read the book?) as well as the other couple of filmed versions (just once, they weren’t awful but nothing like Hitch’s perfection), so I’m very familiar with all the details. There was some clunky writing involved here though. I mean, ‘last night I dreamt I went to Malibu again’ doesn’t really have the same ring to it as the original. My teeth grinded every time I read, ‘my cousin’ used in an apparent attempt to keep one of the character’s identity secret. And, seriously, you could play some sort of drinking game with the amount of times Cantor mentions the characters drinking wine (and you would be adding another level of meta maybe).
Yes, this book is so meta, I became a little lost as to which was was being broken in the end. However, after I finished it, I didn’t stare off into space and think, ‘wow, that was so clever’. Instead, I basically just stared off into space and thought, ‘what.ever, gf’.
I had issues with the romantic/sexual aspect of the book. Ash was like a Maxim DeWinter you ordered from Wish, and Olivia’s other two potential loves are pretty insipid and almost invisible for the bulk of the book.
But!!!! I still found the book oddly compelling and I sped through it quickly in a trashy, car crash I couldn’t stop looking at, kind of way, which makes my rating difficult. Mmm… 3 out of 5 maybe, but I can easily see some readers loving it or hating it much more.
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