Over at Murderati, Robert Gregory Brown posts about comparing the experience of reading a book with being with a lover. Now you know the romance writer in me was ready to get on board with that analogy. Most of any good romance is foreplay–will they or won’t they and if they will how will they?
Brown compares the first act of the book with seduction, the second act with foreplay and the last act with climax. Although I like this better than the usual exposition, confrontation and resolution, something is a little off with the comparison nonetheless.
While I agree that what a reader is looking for is a “relationship” with a book, I view that first glimpse of it in the bookstore as the seduction. Does it have a cover I find attractive? Is the blurb appealing? Does the first page grab me? Maybe I’ll take it home with me.
Once I start reading, that’s the foreplay. Does the writing capture my attention? Does the writing entice or make me want to pull away? Do the characters and the plot stimulate? This is the point at which I’m making the decision aas to how far I want to go with this book. Do I want to give it a full read or put it aside?
There’s a reason why the middle part of a book can be described as rising tension that leads to the climax of the story. The stakes rise, the conflict deepens, you don’t know if the story will rise to your expectations or leave you flat, but the more you read the more you want that satisfaction of a good tale.
But the story doesn’t end with the climax, no matter how good that is. There’s always the denoument when I get to sigh and reflect on the story I’ve just read. One might call that the afterglow (or aftergroan if the book in question has proved disappointing) when I speculate on whether I’ll give the author another shot. If the answer is yes, one can only hope for a short refractory period before the next book comes out.
