Love is in the air!

 

Right, so it’s coming out of our ears – all the love jingles, the bad poetry, the silly cards and maybe the young ones are already out there shopping for the perfect dress for the occasion. Valentine’s Day is many things for many people – for some a romantic interlude, for some the pressure of finding a date (or finding a pretend one for the night, if necessary) and for others, it could be about giving the spouse an evening of pure, unadulterated attention.

For me, it’s always a time when I like to go back to literature and the movies, searching out all the finest love quotes and savouring them over the season. Maybe you would find me mooning over a Shakespearean sonnet...  “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate....” Or watching my favourite movie, Harry Met Sally for the millionth time on the telly and enjoying the romance of lines like... “I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

This year, I also found several beautiful and romantic lines in a book I am reading presently (recommended by a good friend and indeed, just as amazing as it was hyped up to be) called The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak. Here is one of my favourite quotes but there are so many in this lovely book... “Every true love and friendship is a story of unexpected transformation. If we are the same person before and after we loved, that means we haven’t loved enough.”  

But enough rambling. Let’s get down to the book I plan to review this week ...

The Publicist by Christina George

After that prologue on love, I am sure you were wondering if I was going to choose a romantic book to review. But sorry – I like to pick up current books and this one showed much promise and was centred on an industry I wanted to know more about.

Let me make just one quick detour. When I heard about this book, I wanted to read it right away but to my acute disappointment, it took over one month to reach me from an online book portal and when it did finally arrive, I ripped open the parcel and began reading it at once. (Ah that delicious anticipation that only book lovers understand!)

The story of The Publicist is set in the deeply mysterious world of publishing. The protagonist Kate Mitchell, is a publicist with a large New York publishing house and much of her time and energy is taken up with dealing with the humungous egos of the noted writers she represents. Whether it is handling books that don’t sell to reaching out to a celebrity hungry audience, Kate takes it all in her stride, with a remarkable air of poise.  

And so we are swept into this high powered world and with a breezy pace, we, the readers are flung from one crisis to another. A book launch where books don’t turn up. A suicidal author. Wheelings. Dealings. And so much more.

Of course, there is the star editor, MacDermott Ellis whom Kate is attracted to – but...  and here comes the big obstacle – he is married. So what will our Kate do? Any good guess? No? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out that one.

The short chapters and the rapid pace at which events happen perhaps help keep up the tempo of all the excitement in the publishing world, but the writer does not seem to take enough time to develop her characters. By the time you are prepared to like Kate for being smart and sexy, you get drawn into her romantic life which is quite dull.

The book was apparently written by an insider in the industry and though it gives a reader a lot of insights into the publishing world, it seems to have been put together in a bit of a hurry, going by the brevity of some of the chapters and the sketchy details of characters and events in some parts of the book.

This is a good novel for those who love the world of books and would like to know what sells and what doesn’t.  And yes, it is a must read, for all those who are planning to write a book of your own someday or hoping to become a publicist yourself.